Capering on Glass Bridges (The Hawk of Stone Duology, Book 1)

by Jessica Hernandez

  “Run!” shouted Thomas.

  Elania—with Ani climbing her back—grabbed Kaia. The group dashed through the forest without seeing where they were going; all in their periphery was reduced to a blur, all in front of them to a void. At times, they lost sight of the beast. They could hear him, though. Thomas and Aylin were spewing utterances, trying to slow the newly born monster down. They made trees fall in its path, but it avoided being struck and managed to leap over the felled trees with great ease. Thomas or Aylin, it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell which one, tried to ensnare the beast with vines. That was only marginally successful; though it slowed him down, he broke free rather quickly.

  Kaia followed one of the princes. She ducked when he ducked, jumped when he jumped, and swerved when he swerved. It was Lyon. She was following Lyon. Kaia realized it when he turned his head to glance behind him. She dared not do the same, lest she lose momentum. Lyon bounded over something. It moved.

  “Bennett!” cried Kaia. He looked confused. He struggled to get up. Kaia and Elania, barely slowing down, stooped, each grabbing him by an arm and forcing him to his feet.

  The monster let out a wrathful sound.

  Kaia thought of only one thing: the horror that awaited them if the beast caught up. Those teeth, how easily they would rip through human flesh—as easily as does a human bite into a slice of bread. What a painful end that would be! Kaia could hear her heart pounding in her head. Dread began to set in. What if Thomas and Aylin could not stop the monster? There was no place to hide.

  The group came to a halt. There was a river before them. How deep it was, they could not ascertain. Kaia was the first to step in. It was shallow—shallow enough to wade across. The rest followed. Insee flew over their heads. By the time the Speakers, the Stones, Pelliab, and the princes had crossed, the beast was halfway across.

  “I say that no more water shall run through this river. Instead, let it be filled with a deep, viscous mud. So I say,” uttered Aylin hurriedly.

  In an instant, the slow moving waters grew dark and were stilled. The beast’s hips were swallowed by the mud. Unable to advance, it let out a furious snarl. Drool hung from its lower lip.

  “Keep moving!” said Pelliab.

  “This way!” hollered Thomas.

  The group ran with great speed and ease. One lash from Fear was all that was needed. None grew tired. Each felt as though they could continue running till the end of existence; they neither cramped nor felt pain.

  When the group was finally out of the forest, they slowed to a walk. They had a hard time catching their breaths. Lyon crouched down, holding his knees.

  “What was that?” asked Warrin, blocking Aylin and Thomas. “Why did my brother—”

  “We don’t know,” answered Aylin.

  “Raelon isn’t human! This is the doing of your people!”

  “He knew this would be dangerous. We all did,” said Thomas.

  “I don’t understand,” said Bennett, shaking his head. “The utterance…was this mentioned?”

  “It has to have been,” said Warrin.

  “Is this what was meant by the land knowing only misery? Or is your transcription so hopelessly incomplete?”

  “The latter,” said Lyon, straightening up. “This goes beyond misery.”

  “The Utdrendans…they gave the councilors that other verse…the one about lifting the curse. Why, if there were still more verses missing, withhold them?”

  Aylin and Thomas knew not how to respond.

  A shuffling was heard in the bushes.

  “We can’t stay here,” said Pelliab, walking away. The others trailed him.

  The three remaining princes all wore the same frenzied expression. They were beset with disbelief and shock. A part of them refused to accept the last hour’s occurrences as fact. All had happened too suddenly, too violently, too unexpectedly. Surely it could not be real. Surely they were still asleep. Eventually, however, their sorrow and impotence gave way to anger.

  “Who do you suppose is the he that Ashner mentioned?” Bennett asked Warrin.

  “I don’t know.”

  “He was only a boy,” said Lyon.

  “Likely that is why they—whoever they are—chose him.”

  “We left him unburied.”

  “Not by choice!”

  “That flird was never intended for his mother. He was conspiring against us,” said Bennett.

  “He was a fool to betray his own for glory in another’s land,” said Warrin. “An absolute imbecile! Glory he shall never know; he failed on both fronts.”

  ***

  No windows were visible; nailed to each structure’s sides were planks of wood covering them in their entirety. Not a single person wandered about. Not a sound could be heard. The town of Mellap seemed abandoned and forgotten.

  Pelliab led the group. They moved slowly, scanning the signs that hung above their heads. They came to stop underneath one that read ‘Robin’s Restful Roost.’ Painted on it was the image of a bird cozily lounging inside of a nest. Pelliab tried the door. It was bolted. He knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again.

  “Who pounds on my door?”

  “We are looking for beds,” answered Pelliab.

  The bolts were unfastened and the door opened. A small boy bid the group to enter quickly before shutting the door and rapidly fastening the bolts. An empty, cramped chamber—or tavern, rather—with no shortage of chairs and round tables received the party.

  “How many beds will you be requiring?” asked the boy.

  “Eight,” answered Pelliab.

  “How many nights?”

  “One. Are your parents—”

  “This is my establishment,” he interrupted.

  “Alright, mister…”

  “Not mister. Just Jorstace.”

  Aylin took out a little black bag. “How much for the beds, Jorstace?”

  “Four precs.”

  Aylin jiggled the bag and handed Jorstace four gold coins. Putting them into his pocket, the boy zigzagged between the tables, scurrying towards a large chest. He returned with two lanterns; one was given to Pelliab, the other to Aylin.

  “Come,” said Jorstace, seizing his own lantern as he made his way to a corner of the room. He showed the group up a steep staircase and into a musty corridor. “This room is for the men,” he said.

  Pelliab, Thomas, Bennett, Warrin, and Lyon filed into the room that Jorstace pointed out. Bennett looked over his shoulder and smiled at the women in parting.

  The child led the women up a second flight of stairs. “Ladies, this is your room,” he said, opening another door.

  The room was stuffy, and even with a lantern, it was dark inside. The ladies weren’t alone. They could hear their roommates; they snored loudly.

  Jorstace shut the door.

  Aylin, Kaia, and Elania chose the beds furthest away from their roommates and settled in. Elania, who had—at Pelliab’s insistence—hidden Ani in her bag prior to entering Mellap, checked on her friend. She would not be able to let her out, not with company. Kaia reached into her own bag and withdrew the florally configured Insee, who had changed form for ease of transportation indoors. Kaia tucked her underneath her bed, placing her on top of her bundle.

  The three young women sat on their bunks, not sleepy in the slightest.

  “The princes are right,” whispered Kaia. “Your transcription is incomplete.”

  “I know,” said Aylin.

  “The only way for us to learn about the curse is through the Marians.”

  “We can’t ask them about it directly. We’ll leave a trail,” said Elania.

  “We don’t have to ask them anything. We need only to get them talking.”

  “Jorstace,” suggested Aylin. “He’s a child; it’s probably safest to speak to him.”

  “We can’t wait till morning,” said Kaia, motioning towards the slumbering women. “Let me go talk to him now.”

  “No!” said Elania.

&n
bsp; “Why not?”

  “It’s too risky. If he asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, it’ll become obvious that we’re foreigners.”

  “We can’t continue wandering through Mar blindly. That is too risky.”

  Elania was silent.

  “The lantern—we only have one,” said Kaia.

  “They have a few,” said Aylin, eyeing their roommates. “Grab one. We’ll return it long before they wake up.”

  Kaia borrowed a lantern and exited the room. She descended the two flights of stairs and entered the inn’s tavern. She heard some shuffling. “Jorstace,” she called.

  The small boy appeared in the doorway of what Kaia imagined to be the inn’s kitchen. “Do you need something?”

  “Some water, please,” said Kaia, taking a seat at the counter. “Thank you.” Kaia put her lips to the mug that she had been offered.

  “Where are you from?” asked the boy.

  “The east. We are travelling to Tearl.”

  “Why?”

  “To visit my friends’ uncle.”

  “Is it urgent?”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought so. No one is foolish enough to go out in the dark otherwise.”

  Kaia held the mug up to her face. “How old are you, Jorstace?”

  “Eleven.”

  “Where are your parents?”

  “I have no parents.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “My mother died. My father…he turned.”

  Kaia took another sip of her water, stalling. This was her chance. She had to probe further. But how to approach? She was taking too long. Jorstace angled his body as if to leave. She had to say something, and quickly.

  “What made him turn?”

  “Does it matter? I am not like him!”

  Kaia frowned. “I wasn’t suggesting that you were.” She paused, looking into her mug. “Do you have any other family?”

  “No.”

  “So you run this place on your own?”

  “Yes. It’s not all that difficult.”

  “It doesn’t seem easy.”

  “The chores aren’t burdensome, and the adults, well, they wouldn’t dare treat me ill. I suppose we do have reasons to be thankful, don’t we?” he said with a chuckle.

  “You are happy with the way things are?”

  “Sometimes. The curse may have done away with a lot of people—too many, actually—but it also did away with a lot of bad things. Do you disagree?”

  Kaia shook her head. “No. I better get to bed,” she said with half a grin. “Thank you for the water.”

  ***

  Kaia returned to her room a bit disappointed; she had overestimated her investigative abilities. There was little to report. Kaia told Elania and Aylin of Jorstace’s use of the word turned. They pondered its meaning before concluding that it likely referred to what had happened to Raelon. They wondered whether killing was the only thing that caused a person to turn; that, of course, they could not answer.

  The ladies’ conversation was briefly interrupted by one of their roommates—who was having a coughing fit. The voluptuous woman sat up, her back to the three young women, to clear her throat. As soon as she could breathe again, her head dropped onto her pillow, and the girls resumed talking.

  Kaia was asked if she had learned of anything else. She mentioned that the Marians seemed to think that it was unsafe to go out in the dark. Again, the girls wondered why. With a shrug of the shoulders—and after resolving to tell the others of Kaia’s conversation with Jorstace the following morning—the three ladies reconciled themselves to ignorance and laid down on their bunks.

  Most of the night would have to pass before Kaia could fall asleep. She stared in Elania and Aylin’s direction. She could not say with certainty if they were sleeping; it was too dark, and their faces were turned away. She doubted, however, that they would be able to so carelessly slip into a peaceful slumber after the night’s events.

  Kaia had never hitherto seen someone die. She felt overwhelmed. Not by sadness, though. Rather, she felt disturbed. She kept thinking about the blade that pierced Ashner’s chest and of the mess that it had made. She thought, too, of Raelon’s eyeless, toothless, pitiful face. To know that death is imminent, is that worse than death itself? Kaia thought so. How sorrowful it must be to know that at any moment you will draw your last breath and be ushered into the darkness, far away from both Acubound pleasures and those whom you shelter in your heart. The terror! Could there be a greater horror? If there was, Kaia could not conceive of it.

  Chapter Nine

  Unexpected Encounters

  What a difference a few hours had made. All of the homes and shops in Mellap had their front doors open. People trickled from building to building. The town was awake. Nonetheless, Kaia and the group would not tarry. Wordlessly, they bid farewell to Jorstace and continued on their way to Enbeck.

  Once they were clear of the town, Elania opened her bag, allowing Ani to climb out. As soon as Ani’s feet hit the ground, she ran a few steps and jumped into the air, keeping her arms extended above her head.

  Kaia grabbed Insee by the ‘stem’ and, releasing her from her floral form, let her take flight.

  “Have you been a kingsman your whole life, Pelliab?” asked Kaia.

  “No. No one is born a kingsman—no more than anyone is born a craftsman or a merchant.”

  “People can be born into professions.”

  “Not kingsmen.”

  “So how does one become a—”

  “Don’t you have them in Greyland?” asked Pelliab brusquely.

  “No.”

  “There’s only one way,” said Warrin. “By being remarkably talented as a soldier. Only the best of the very best surround his highness.”

  “Those that follow become princesmen,” added Lyon.

  “Really?” asked Kaia.

  “No,” said Bennett with a smile.

  “What awaits princes such as yourselves?” asked Elania.

  “In terms of occupation? We do not know. King we shall never be. That title belongs to my brother Borret.”

  “Is he your full brother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Similar names,” observed Kaia.

  “We’ve all—princes and princesses alike—been trained as soldiers,” said Warrin.

  “With such a large family to protect, Father has always seen value in the art of combat,” added Lyon.

  “So maybe some of us will become kingsmen.”

  “Is that what you want?” asked Kaia.

  “I could be a kingsman,” said Lyon. “Although, to be frank, when one has as many talents as do I, the possibilities are endless.”

  “Are they?” asked Warrin.

  “Absolutely! For instance, I could see myself as Father or Borret’s exchequer just as easily as I could see myself as a constable—oh! Or as a musician! Envision it: me making swoon-worthy, elegant tunes echo through Father’s halls. That would be divine!”

  “You take everything in jest.”

  “Life should be taken in no other way, Brother.”

  Kaia noticed Aylin tuck away a map.

  “Did you ever meet the Tivmicans?” asked Kaia, looking at the princes.

  “No,” answered Bennett.

  “They lived at quite a distance from Darlbent. Their land was far east—bordering Greyland, actually,” explained Warrin.

  “Perhaps Pelliab did,” said Lyon. “Pelliab! Did you ever meet a Tivmican? No? He says no. Thomas? Aylin? No? They say no.”

  “Us neither,” said Elania.

  “Odd creatures they are said to have been.”

  “Were they?”

  “In appearance, at least.”

  “What did they look like?” asked Kaia.

  “They were short.”

  “Four feet tall, I heard,” said Bennett.

  “Between four and four-and-a-half feet tall,” said Warrin.

  “They had enormous, po
inted ears.”

  “Massive ears that stuck out above their heads.”

  “And not a hair on their heads,” said Lyon. “Not one. Not even the females. They did have a sort of mane. It began right below the chin, on the neck. The hair was so long that it dragged if they didn’t clip it. They wore it in hundreds of matted locks.”

  “They had no need for clothes. Their manes made it impossible to see their skin,” said Warrin.

  “And oval eyes!”

  “What?”

  “They had blue, oval-shaped eyes,” said Lyon.

  “According to Father, King Richard was in talks with the Tivmicans when the curse fell,” said Bennett. “The two kingdoms were to become one.”

  “Why?” asked Kaia.

  “It was a most favorable alliance.”

  “Each had something that the other wanted,” said Warrin.

  “What did the Tivmicans have?” asked Kaia.

  “They were healers.”

  “The irony,” breathed Lyon.

  “And the Marians?” asked Elania.

  “They were one of the most powerful kingdoms in all of Acu. What didn’t they have?”

  Kaia tightened her lips. She hadn’t expected the princes to be so talkative—and so normal—in the wake of their loss. It was almost as if it hadn’t happened at all. If she were to lose one of her sisters, her sorrow would be perennial. Kaia remembered Lyon’s earlier words; they had thousands of siblings. Perhaps the five brothers had only recently become familiar with one another. Was it even feasible for King Robert to house his entire family in a single location? Probably not. Yes, it was entirely possible that the brothers had not met until a mere couple of days before setting sail.

  “Is this Tearl?” asked Lyon, as the group approached a town.

  “No,” said Aylin.

  “We passed Tearl long ago,” added Thomas. “This is Ricaan.”

  Ani returned to hiding, and Insee assumed her floral form.