by Joe Sniezek
“How would I know?” Eniyan said and raised his hand to cut off the young man’s angry retort. “I can see many possible explanations. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I am. I see both sides of everything. But this –” He trailed off looking a back in the direction of the golem.
“This what?” Wilfer demanded.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. It was clearly sent to locate something and call the alarm. I can’t imagine that would be for me. People know I’m here, and they never cared before.”
“So what do they want with me?” Wilfer asked.
“Now that is something I truly don’t know. And you may never find out because the people who can answer that question are the same people who mean you harm,” Eniyan admitted.
Wilfer stared at him as if the truth could be squeezed out of the old man by the force of his gaze. Wilfer couldn’t help but feel that Eniyan was sincere in his nonchalance. Succumbing to the heat of the young man’s scrutiny, Eniyan explained a bit more, “I really don’t know anything about you, where you are from, or why you are here. You haven’t exactly been forthcoming with many details, you know.”
“Perhaps not.” Wilfer frowned but conceded the point.
“But I promise that I have nothing to do with your poor treatment, nor do I know anyone who does,” Eniyan said. His tone softened and he reached out to place a hand on Wilfer’s shoulder. “But I am willing to help you in every way I can.”
Wilfer eyes were wet. “Thank you,” he said very quietly, as he exhaled and slumped his shoulders, deflating like a balloon.
“We have to keep moving, Wilfer,” Eniyan urged, wishing he could give him more time to process his thoughts.
Eniyan started walking, but Wilfer said, “Not just yet.” He turned to Zumi and looked her straight in the eyes and asked, “And what do you know about all of this?”
“Me?” Zumi asked, stunned.
“Yes. You haven’t said anything, but I realize I hadn’t actually asked, so I’m asking you now. Do you know anything about my situation? What is going on, or who kidnapped me?”
“No, I swear,” she answered right away.
“Or anything else I should know?”
“No, nothing. I only know that nothing like this would have ever happened in San La,” she said as sincerely as she could.
Did she pause there for a moment? Maybe she was just thinking, or maybe it was just his imagination. She is very persistent with returning back to her home. That was beginning to annoy Wilfer, but he liked her. There was something special about her, so he decided that she was completely honest.
“Okay, so far I know that they are chasing me. I think they want to avoid hurting me, but they do want to capture me. Knowing that is better than nothing, I suppose. I can make that work. I will have to. Oh, and one more thing,” he said with conviction, “I don’t intend to let them.” And with that, he turned and continued to walk towards Eniyan’s house.
Having calmed down slightly, Wilfer could turn his mind to the next step. “What now?” he asked to get some ideas from the others.
“Get supplies,” Eniyan said simply.
“Sure, but I mean after that. We can’t stay in town. Do we go to San La with Zumi?”
“Yes,” Zumi said with a grin, knowing Wilfer had fully expected her to say that.
Eniyan looked thoughtful for a bit and said, “What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?” He stabbed his finger at Wilfer with each question for emphasis.
“Honestly, I just don’t see how those guards in San La can be trusted. We’d be putting ourselves at their mercy,” Wilfer said.
“They can be trusted. Plus, I’m with you, and I’m kind of a big deal. They’ll listen to me,” Zumi said.
“Maybe we can make that our backup plan,” Wilfer said after he noticed Eniyan’s apprehensive look.
∞∞∞
At the house, Wilfer wondered aloud, “What’s here anyway?”
“Supplies,” Eniyan said as little more than a grunt. The old man seemed done with the conversation.
Wilfer rolled his eyes. “I know, but what kind of supplies? The place has been abandoned.”
“I have some stuff,” Eniyan said with an insulted sniff, “a bit of food, some cookware.”
“Weapons?” Wilfer asked eagerly.
Eniyan laughed and shook his head. He paused thoughtfully and said, “Well, a couple of cooking knives, maybe a fork or two.”
“Better than nothing I guess,” Wilfer was disappointed. He threw in an afterthought, “Hey, what about that map?”
“It’s not very useful, but I guess it could come in handy. Okay, we’ll bring it. But let’s be careful with it. It’s very rare,” he said reluctantly.
“It’ll be faster if we split up. Since they’re only interested in me, you should be able to just walk in the front door. You can pretend you never saw me. Zumi and I will slip into the basement,” Wilfer said.
“There’s no boat, remember?” Eniyan pointed out.
“Oh yeah. Well, we will figure something out.”
As they were about to split up, Eniyan said, “Hush. Do you hear that? Hooves in the distance.”
Wilfer heard nothing. “Let’s hurry. We will meet where we left the missing boat,” Wilfer said as he sprinted up the street, not waiting for a reply or to see if Zumi followed.
Zumi was following and they circled around the house and lowered themselves over the edge of the dock and into the muddy river. There was no choice, they had to slog through layers of knee-deep muck below hip-deep swamp water. Zumi looked as if she was going to vomit, but Wilfer remained stoic. The houses looked different from under the dock and Wilfer had trouble recognizing the right one. He spotted a patch of mud smeared on the foundation of one building and knew it was Eniyan’s.
It was the right house, but the mud plaster had hardened enough that Wilfer needed to scrape it out with one of Zumi’s crossbow bolts. He used the arrow to carefully hook a loop of the chain and extract it from the gap around the stone. He handed it back to Zumi saying, “Step back, I have to pull this heavy stone out.” Wilfer put a foot up on the wall for leverage and heaved on the chain. The stone slid out and slapped down into the mud, covering them both with a foul grey-brown paste. Wilfer, not being in enough good humor to laugh, just shrugged and climbed inside.
“Zumi, see if you can find a light,” Wilfer said as he grabbed the map from the table. “I’ve got the map if nothing else.”
“Nothing, indeed. It’s just garbage here,” Zumi said after finding a lantern and performing a quick inventory. She stopped and cocked her head to listen. Seeing that, Wilfer could now hear some voices, also. They sounded like they were coming from out on the street. The speaker or words couldn’t be identified, however. They were merely loud, authoritative noises.
Wilfer looked at Zumi with a silent question. She put her arms out and made a sweeping gesture to indicate the worthless contents of the room. She pointed at Wilfer then towards the opening in the wall. Taking her meaning, Wilfer agreed they needed to keep moving. There was no reason to linger other than curiosity. Not prone to succumbing to snooping, Wilfer followed Zumi out of the hole in the wall.
The conversation still emanated from above; it sounded like it was growing contentious. They heard a thud against the door as if it were kicked, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Wilfer and Zumi exchanged concerned glances and increased their pace, slogging upstream through the mud.
Wilfer felt safe enough to whisper, “Do you think Eniyan is ok?”
Zumi said nothing for a few paces, wrestling with her word choice. “Is that really our problem?”
“Of course it is,” Wilfer snapped. He stopped and turned around, intending to go back.
“I just mean we don’t really know him,” she said, resting her hand on his forearm to calm him. “Maybe he changed his mind about coming along. For all we know, he’s selling us out this very moment. That argument could have been him ho
lding out for more cash.”
“No way would he do that,” Wilfer said.
“Well, the plan was to meet at the river,” she said, changing tactics to calm his rising anger. “Let’s just stick with the plan. We don’t have a backup plan. It’s you that they’re interested in, right?”
Wilfer realized she was right and continued up the muddy river without any further arguments. He was starting to relax and trust that the plan was working. He then frowned; somewhere deep in his mind, alarms were going off. He asked his companion, “Do you smell smoke?”
“No, all I can smell is this nasty swamp water,” Zumi said with a wrinkled nose.
Like the breath of a dragon, a wave of hot air surged past them. The ruddy glow of flames tearing through the town reflected off the water of the river. Wilfer dropped into a ready crouch but Zumi pulled him up by the arm saying, “We have to keep going.”
Feeling the heat radiate down from the boardwalk above as the wood crackled and smoldered, for once, Wilfer found himself in complete agreement with her. In a surge of panic, they ran through the knee-deep mud and waist deep water. The mud grabbed at their feet and dragged them down into the water. Swimming was faster than trying to stay upright and dry.
The flames could move faster than they could, unfortunately. Soon it had overtaken them; the flames were directly above them now. Wilfer practically threw Zumi the remaining few yards as he leapt from out under the end of the boardwalk. Plunging into the reeds, Wilfer quickly bushwhacked his way to the tree that the boat had been hidden under.
“Is this it?” Zumi asked.
Yeah. I think so. Or close enough,” Wilfer said through deep coughing breaths. He slumped against the small tree.
“We can’t stay here,” Zumi insisted.
“That was the plan. I’m staying right here until Eniyan comes,” Wilfer told her, “Let’s stay near the water, we can jump back in if the flames come near.”
But the flame did not ignite the reeds. The plants were too wet. Instead, it smoldered and produced a thick acrid white smoke. As determined as Wilfer was to stay put, he would have suffocated from the smoke if he did. He followed Zumi down the river to a patch of matted reeds. They gathered a few of the drier reeds and piled them up into a mound to sit on. At this point, they were so caked in mud and slime that making a cushion was likely a waste of time, but small tasks like that can be comforting in times of stress.
Zumi laid back in exhaustion and Wilfer looked back anxiously at the town through the reeds and thick smoke. The town was an inferno. The fire had spread to the entire ward; almost every roof was on fire. There will be nothing left when it is done, Wilfer thought.
As he waited and watched, he heard someone stomping through the reeds. He patted Zumi on the shoulder to alert her. She reached into her bag for her crossbow, but as she did, she recognized the robed figure of Eniyan coming their way. The old man walked up to them and fell onto his hands and knees. With his head close to the ground and below the level of the smoke, he took several deep breaths, coughing in between. With his lungs as clear as they could be, he looked up at Wilfer and smiled a sad smile. Things did not go well.
Seven
Eniyan had not been able to grab many supplied before being accosted by those men. He emptied out his burlap sack and distributed the contest among his companions. He was only able to bring a small pot, a couple of knives, a few apples, and some cheese. Wilfer and Zumi looked at it with disappointment as they repacked their supplies to include the few meager additions. Wilfer snatched the largest knife and slid it into his belt.
He asked, “What the hell happened, Eniyan?”
“They showed up,” Eniyan said followed by somber silence.
“I’ll need a little more detail than that,” Wilfer demanded.
“Nobody was around when I got to the house, so I quickly ran in and grabbed these things. There wasn’t much else anyway – just a few more jars of food, nothing useful or worth the weight of carrying,” Eniyan said.
“What about the fire?” Zumi asked, impatiently.
“The moment I left the house, someone started shouting from up the road. Several men on horseback descended upon me. They were asking about you, Wilfer. Although it was just by rough description, either they didn’t know your name or they didn’t think I would,” Eniyan said.
“Did they ask about me, too?” Zumi asked, deep in thought and biting her fingernails.
“Just Wilfer.” Eniyan shook his head. “I told them I was alone. They wanted to look around and I tried to stall them. I didn’t know where you were by then. They saw through my plan, though. They grabbed me and attempted to tie me up. While I was struggling with them, another guy put a torch to the roof. To smoke you out, maybe? Anyway, it went up in a flash. I slipped away in the smoke and ran as fast as I could. I don’t think any of them could have survived. That fire spread so fast.”
“I’m glad you made it, my friend,” Wilfer said as he clapped Eniyan on the shoulder and handed him the map with a smile. Wilfer noticed Zumi’s doubtful expression from the corner of his eye. He thought that Eniyan’s retelling didn’t quite match up with what he had seen and heard. But it was chaos, if Eniyan’s story had a few inaccuracies, that was understandable.
“We shouldn’t linger. Where to now?” Wilfer asked.
“Away,” Eniyan said and pointed up the hill with his chin.
“San La is too obvious. If the road isn’t already blocked, that will be the first place they look,” Wilfer said.
“I can guide and protect you. I promise,” Zumi said with confidence.
“Nobody is looking for you. You can go back anytime you want, on your own,” Wilfer suggested. He hoped she would stop pushing him so hard. If she did leave, he would miss her very much, but at times like this, he wondered if maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“Oh, I’d never be able to sleep again, I’d be so worried about you guys,” Zumi said.
“Well, we would have to take a roundabout route anyway. It’d be foolish to go directly there. For now, let’s just get out of this smoke,” Wilfer said to humor her. Eniyan had a wary look in his eyes, but said nothing.
Zumi looked past Wilfer and pointed to something she spotted floating in the river. Wilfer shouted and ran towards it. As he approached it, he saw that it was a large man lying face down in the mud. His head and shoulders were barely out of the water, the rest still submerged. Wilfer tried to pull the man out, but he was much larger than he seemed – larger than any person should be. Eniyan grabbed one arm at the shoulder, Wilfer the other, and they slowly pulled. At that moment, a large creature with long thick tentacles and large bulbous eyes began pulling and thrashing at the man’s legs.
Wilfer counted, “One. Two. Three,” and gave a mighty heave with Eniyan, and they pulled the man fully onto the muddy shore. The squid creature crawled out of the water too. It slipped onto the drowning man’s back, oozing towards his head. Zumi let out a shriek and Wilfer grabbed the knife from his belt. He leaned in to stab the creature when the drowned man tried to croak a few words and coughed out the water from his lungs as he did. Wilfer drew his knife back to deliver a fatal blow when he was stopped by the man’s second attempt at words, “No. Stop. Is friend.”
Wilfer paused his attack and straightened up. The squid creature also stopped it’s crawling to the man’s head, but remained on his back, pulsating slightly.
After several more wet painful coughs, the man cleared his airways and said, “It saved me from drowning,” as he pushed himself up onto his elbows, knees, and eventually his feet.
Now that he was standing, Wilfer could see that he was tall – impossibly tall. Wilfer’s eyes were level with this man’s chest and his head did not rise past the man’s shoulders. The tall man looked down at Wilfer, stuck out his large hand in greeting, and said, “Ikvig.”
After taking a moment to grasp the situation, Wilfer shook the man’s hand. The size difference of their hands made Wilfer feel like a small
child holding his parent’s hand. “My name is Wilfer,” he said.
“Well met,” Ikvig nodded and said, “Let’s get away from the smoke and flames.”
As Wilfer followed in Ikvig’s footsteps, he noticed that the tentacle creature was still clutching his back. Since the giant did not seem to mind, Wilfer shrugged away his concerns and said, “This way,” pointing towards the way they had been heading. Wilfer looked over his shoulder at Ikvig, pointed to Eniyan and Zumi, and said, “This is Eniyan. This is Zumi.”
“Well met, Eniyan and Zumi. I am Ikvig,” the large man said.
“Nice you meet you, Ikvig,” Zumi said with a wave and a smile, “And who’s your friend on your back?” The tentacle creature pulsed a couple of tentacles that were resting on Ikvig’s shoulders and made a few peculiar noises. Ikvig paused as if he was either listening or thinking and then said, “Call him Ike.”
“Ike?” Wilfer asked and burst out laughing. It was a boisterous, infectious laugh that people give when the tension and stress have been building up for far too long. Zumi and then Eniyan started laughing too.
Laughing a little not to be left out, but also not quite getting the joke, Ikvig asked, “What?”
“Ike will do fine,” Wilfer said. Not really knowing what to else to say, he asked, “How did you end up in the river?”
“I jumped in to escape the fire. I don’t swim as well as I thought. I landed too deep in the mud and I couldn’t get out.”
“What were you doing in the town, Ikvig?”
“Just looking around.”
“You meant to come here?” Eniyan was surprised.
“The town yes, but not this land of eternal night sky. I think I passed through some magical doorway. I do remember the way back, so it is past time I return. This place is too dangerous,” Ikvig said and waved his hand in the general direction they were walking.
“If you don’t mind, then let us walk a while together,” Wilfer said. Ikvig agreed with a nod.
∞∞∞
The companions were huddled around Eniyan’s map. He pointed to a spot at the base of the mountains marked with a drawing of three small persons standing around a much larger person.