by Ijaz, Usman
At last the lightning and thunder stop, and he opens his eyes. The inn is no more than broken rubble, and bodies lie scattered everywhere. He stands up beneath the black sky, and through the dust and debris sees Port Hope in rubble all around him. Not a single structure is left standing.
He looks to where his cousins and Nina had been, and instead sees only charred bodies lying beneath broken rubble. And as he looks at them, he is filled with a sudden realization.
It’s not the clouds that bring death ... but him.
He looks to the sky and is surprised to see the sun still visible in that roiling mass of black clouds. No, not the sun, but something far brighter. He can do nothing but stare at that brilliant white disk in the sky.
A voice, familiar yet distant, whispers to him like a gentle breeze.
Now you know the cost of failure.
5
Adrian awoke suddenly in the middle of the night, shivering and sweating profusely. He took several deep breaths to try and calm his racing heart. It was a dream, nothing more! A dream. But the feel of the dream still lingered and its emotions of still gripped him. I would never do that, not to any of them! Slowly the memory of the dream began to fade, and he was able to calm down, still feeling appalled at what had happened. Looking around in the semi-darkness he saw only the sleeping shapes of the others, all but one. Connor’s blankets lay empty. Adrian heard the sound of footsteps from outside. He rose unsteadily to go and see. It never crossed his mind to waken Alexis.
The clearing and the surrounding woods had a frightening air, wrapped in absolute darkness, with the moon above providing barely enough light to see. Adrian didn’t like the thought of venturing into those black woods at all. A nightbird rang out a curious cry from the darkness.
“Connor!” he whispered fiercely. There was no reply. Then again, would Connor really call back to him?
He walked past the black coals that had been their fire, and again called out Connor’s name in a loud whisper. Again there was no response, but he could now hear muffled sounds from somewhere in the woods. They were coming from the river, he realized. Adrian headed towards the path that led to the river, calling out Connor’s name as he went.
The ground was littered with leaves and branches and rocks. They poked away at his bare feet as he made his way through the woods. The encroaching darkness made him wary of the surrounding woods and what they might be concealing. He headed towards the Rye, and that other stifled sound became louder. He felt certain that it came from Connor.
“Connor, where are you?”
Adrian came out onto the embankment and found his cousin on his knees. His hands covered his face as he wept in loud, harsh sobs. Below them the black water of the river shone like polished steel as the moonlight shimmered across the surface. The wind rolling off the river was sharp enough to send chills through Adrian’s body.
“Connor,” Adrian said, suddenly frightened. “What are you doing out here? Are you all right?”
Connor didn’t look up at him, only covered his face as if afraid to see anything that might be out here. “No.”
Adrian went and knelt beside him. He pushed Connor’s hands away to look into his cousin’s eyes. “What’s the matter?”
Connor stared back at him with large, tearful brown eyes. For a moment those eyes simply stared at him, as though trying to recall who he was. Then Connor’s face crumpled and he burst out. “I miss my father! I miss my mother, and I miss Anne, and Bertha. I miss Nina, and Tarak. I even miss Hailey !” His voice came out thick and choked and raw.
“It’s all right,” Adrian told him soothingly. “I miss them too.” But he knew Connor’s homesickness was much worse, for Connor still had a home there. Adrian could still remember the look in his cousins’ eyes when they had learned what he was, and though they had hugged him farewell and told him to return, he wasn’t sure he could face those looks again.
“I want to go home!” Connor cried bitterly, as though pleading to the night. Tears rolled down his cheeks and fell onto his clasped hands in his lap.
Adrian’s heart went out to him. We can’t go home now, he thought. Maybe you still can, but not at the moment. He didn’t give voice to these thoughts but instead leaned forward and hugged his cousin. I’m sorry, Connor. I’m sorry you have to go through this. “It’ll be all right.”
Connor stopped sobbing and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hands. For a long while they simply sat there, shivering in the cold, but Adrian knew that Connor needed the time to pull himself together. “Yes, it’ll be all right,” Connor said at last. He looked at Adrian then and there was shame in his eyes. “Why are you doing this? I treated you like dirt.”
“You didn’t mean it,” Adrian told him quietly.
Connor only looked at him in silence, tears still wet on his cheeks. “I’m sorry,” he said at last in a bare whisper. “I’m ... sorry.”
They headed back then silently, bare feet crushing twigs and fallen leaves. When they entered the hut Connor slipped back into his blankets quietly, not noticing that Alexis’s cot was empty. Adrian, however, did notice. He slipped under his own blankets, and after a while, as he was falling sleep, he saw the Legionnaire slip back in.
6
In the morning began the actual construction of the raft that would ferry them across the river. They began work on it at the river’s edge, suffering the chill winds. Alexis set up two long tree trunks, bare of branches and leaves, vertically and then two shorter pieces across the ends of those, creating the frame for the raft. The bark strips which had been soaked overnight to strengthen were used to lash the pieces together. Then they lay the other pieces of wood atop the frame, tying every piece down with strips of long bark.
The work progressed through the morning. Alexis watched their supply of tree trunks and bark dwindle down, and realized that they wouldn’t have enough to strengthen the underside of the raft, as he had planned on doing so. They could get more, but that meant spending perhaps another day or two more than was necessary, and he was not willing to risk that. They would simply have to take their chances with the raft as it was.
By evening of that day they finished the raft, a small structure that was twice as long as a man in length, and half in width. Alexis thought it best to test it before resting all their hopes on it. They tied a small rope to the raft and anchored it to a tree before pushing it into the water, where the current immediately tugged at it, trying to carry it downstream. Alexis stepped onto the unstable structure, and after some stepping around came to the conclusion that it would serve their purpose.
As dusk came, Alexis sat trying to fashion a few paddles as a means to control the raft. He made three improvised paddles by cutting away the ends of a few large branches so that they were flat. It was crude work, but it was better than nothing.
He looked around for Adrian and Connor and saw that the two were napping inside the hut. It pleased him to see that they had actually started to talk to one another again. He thought the previous night’s unexpected tryst between the two had much to do with it. It didn’t really matter; he was simply glad that they were willing to acknowledge one another now.
“Do you really mean to set out tonight?” Rebecca asked. She sat in front of the fire, and Milen lay dozing on the ground, his giant head resting in her lap.
“Yes,” he answered. “ I think we can reach the other end before complete dark.”
Rebecca frowned as she stroked her son’s head. “It will be safer if you leave in the morning. And do you really hope to travel at night once across the river? What difference does it matter if you camp here tonight or over there?”
Alexis thought it over as he worked. At last he said, “All right. We will leave in the morning, then.”
“Good. I don’t very much like the thought of you not being able to see anything around you.”
Alexis set the paddles aside and sat before the fire. He watched Milen dozing. “I don’t think he will be too overjoyed to see
the boys leaving.”
Rebecca continued stroking Milen’s head. “No, he won’t. But if there is anything to be thankful for it’s that he will likely forget them within a month after your departure.”
Alexis nodded. He met Rebecca’s eyes. “What will happen to him once you pass away?”
For a long time the other woman didn’t respond, only sat with a sad, far way look on her face. She had pondered long on this as well, Alexis concluded. “I don’t know,” Rebecca said at last. Her voice shook and she fought to hold her composure.
“I’ve been giving it some thought,” Alexis said. “You could take him out of these woods once you realize your time is drawing nearer.”
“Take him outside? And how will they receive him outside? Any better than before?” She shook her head.
Silence passed between them, filled with the sounds of the woods and the crackling fire.
“Take him to Grandal,” Alexis said at last. He reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a bullet. He held it up before Rebecca’s puzzled frown. “Show this to king Aeiron and tell him of how you aided us. Tell him that I, Alexis Marshall, promised you protection for your son. I believe the king will take proper action then.”
Rebecca stared at the bullet as though she had never before seen its like, and very likely she had not. The bullet was etched and marked for use only by the Legion, and it was the only mark that Alexis could think to use.
Rebecca reached out gingerly to take the bullet from his hand. “This ... this will buy protection for my son?” Tears welled in her eyes.
Alexis nodded. A bitter thought came to him: If we succeed in our mission, yes. If we fail, you will likely be better off here than in the world outside.
“Thank you,” Rebecca said breathlessly. She held the bullet in her palm, as though never intending to let it out of her sight.
“It is the least I can do.” Alexis stood up then and bid her goodnight before heading towards the hut. His eyes drifted upward as he walked across the clearing, and he noticed that the stars were out in their numbers tonight. The sight filled him with sorrow as memories of the past floated to the surface. Bitter memories of home, and all that still waited for him there.
Not for tonight, those memories, he thought as he unbuckled his gun belt and lay down. For now I must focus only on my duty and my oath.
7
They awoke early the next morning, with the sun still a distant light in the horizon, and ate breakfast quietly, none wanting to place more stress on this leaving than they had to.
Adrian noticed that Milen sat with none of the normal merriment that usually shone in his eyes. He was slow-thinking, but even he understood that soon they would depart. Rebecca left wordlessly and went into the hut. Adrian stood up and walked over to sit down besides Milen.
“How are you feeling?” Adrian asked. Milen looked at him, and Adrian saw the tears that swam in his eyes.
“I don’t want you to go,” Milen mumbled, it was an oddly small sound coming from such a large man.
“We have to, Milen. I wish we could stay, we’d like to, but we have to leave.”
“Why?” Milen asked, his eyes pleading.
Because I have a duty, came the thought. “I simply do, Milen.”
They sat in silence then, with the cold wind blowing through the camp. Connor came and sat on Milen’s other side. Milen pleaded with him not to go either. For a moment Adrian thought that Connor just might decide not to, but then Connor looked at him, and told Milen he also had to go. Milen wept silently.
When Rebecca came out of the house she was carrying a small haversack.
“Here,” she said as she handed it to Alexis.
“What’s this?” asked the Legionnaire.
“A few items. There are a few blankets in there, now you can sleep warmly at night, and I also packed some hard bread. There are also some waterskins. It is not much, but it is something.”
Alexis looked at the haversack as though he still didn’t know what it was - on another occasion Adrian might have found it amusing. Then the Legionnaire looked up and said, “We can’t take this, Rebecca. You and Milen have already given us so much.”
“You can, and you will,” Rebecca told him. Her tone brooked no arguments.
“Thank you,” Alexis said at last.
When the time for the actual leaving came, Adrian felt as though he wanted to weep. They stood on the bank of the river, the raft floating lazily, and said their disconsolate goodbyes. Milen accepted their good wishes with quiet mumbles with his head hung down. He was a giant, but inside he would forever remain a child. Rebecca bade them well fortune on traveling through the woods across the river safely.
Rebecca and Milen stood on the bank and watched them go.
Alexis wore the sack Rebecca had given them slung across his back. He gave both Adrian and Connor paddles, and then, with a last look at the two they would be leaving, he cast off the rope. The raft drifted out into the Rye River.
The wind rolling off the river was sharp, and they felt it bite away at their skin through their clothes. Alexis knelt at the head of the raft, and Adrian and Connor sat to either side, all of them paddling against the current. Adrian and Connor both kept glancing back towards Rebecca and Milen on the shore as they drifted further and further.
The three didn’t reach any hard obstacles until they reached the middle of the wide river. There the current was strongest and it threatened to carry them all away.
“Connor! Paddle harder on that side!” Alexis shouted.
But no matter how hard they paddled, they seemed to be only inching their way forward. As water crashed against the sides of the raft, wetting them all, the strain on the bark ropes became too much and many of them began to break.
“Alexis! The raft is coming apart!” Adrian shouted.
“Keep paddling! The shore’s not much farther now!”
Adrian looked up and saw that the shore was indeed much closer now, but he began to wonder if the raft would hold together that long. As he watched, one end of one of the long trunks broke away and began to drag along the raft. Soon the other end broke away also and the branch floated off downstream.
“It’s falling apart!” Connor shouted.
“Keep paddling!” the Legionnaire shouted back.
Adrian looked behind them, and saw that Milen and Rebecca were gone. He thought he understood their reasoning; they didn’t want to see if the three of them made it to the other side or drowned, to them either one was as bad as the other, and perhaps they didn’t want to remember the three of them in that manner.
The bark ropes in the middle of the raft began to snap apart. Adrian understood that the entire raft could come undone at any moment. He could feel the wooden trunks shift beneath his feet, as if they wanted to break away from their restraints. They continued to paddle for all they were worth.
And then they struck the shore.
It was just in time as well, Adrian saw; the bottom of the raft had been unraveling all the while, and now one of the main beams broke away, making the other pieces look like splaying fingers.
Alexis grabbed them both by an arm and they all jumped to land.
“What about the raft?” Adrian asked.
“Let it wash downstream, we don’t want to give anyone on this side a means to reach the other,” Alexis said, and pushed the ruined raft back out into the river.
They turned and headed into the woods.
Chapter 13
The Lord of Hanna
1
Aeiron sat on his throne and listened to the whine of the four lords and one lady that had come to see him. They stood before him, all different in their appearance and all there for different reasons, yet he found it hard to pay attention to any of them. Some wanted him to increase their lands, some wanted him to do something about a grain shortage, while others wanted him to banish the bandits from the mountains.
“... the raids have increased in the past year, my king, and I
can no longer hold them off with what little men I have. I need more!”
“Raids are no matter to me. You see, if my lands were extended just by the slightest, I am certain that I could rid those lands of these raids.”
“Are you suggesting, Harris, that you want to steal my lands?”
“Quarrel about your damned raids some other time,” snapped the lone woman. “It is the grain shortage that concerns me ...”
And so it went. Aeiron let it drift over his head. He stared at the portly man who had complained about how hot it was, but he didn’t voice his argument about the weather again, which was perhaps for the good. The king looked to the seat besides his, where his wife, the Queen Jayne, sat. She smiled at him, and some of his weariness washed away.
He wanted to tell these fools to stop bickering, that it didn’t matter because soon there would only be one thing that need concern them all. Survival. If Alexis and the boy are dead, then we must all prepare. But he dared not voice this strong urge; he would not have panic spreading across the land like grassfire.
Hamar and Owain’s bodies had arrived a day ago and had been buried with all the respect that was owed them, but he couldn’t help but wonder about Alexis. Three had left, two had returned in the back of a wagon, but what had come of the third? Was it just that he was dead and no one had found his body yet?
Not since first assuming the throne at the supple age of fifteen had he ever felt so worried. As if sensing the run of his thoughts and his desire to be away from these nobles, Nemar rushed into the room.
“Your highness, the Krillen ... it’s glowing!”
“But, your highness ...” the Lords started in unison as Aeiron stood up.
“You may continue your discussions with my wife,” the king told them. “I am sure that she has been paying better attention to you than I.” He gave his wife an apologetic smile for burdening her with this, and then turned and followed Nemar out.