by J. K. Barber
“To be honest, I’m trying to figure out what in the Great Mother’s name you’re doing out here,” Jared answered bluntly. “Even had you not told me you were from Snowhaven, it’s obvious that you hail from some village in the mountains to the north. Your name and accent give that away. You know how to handle yourself in a scuffle, and I have the bruises to prove it.” Jared rubbed his back at some phantom pain, eliciting a small smile from the young warrior. “Also, you care for your sword and gear like someone who was born to it. Your stance itself,” Jared nodded towards Sasha, “even when you’re relaxed, shouts that you’ve been formally trained in swordsmanship, and the scar on your left cheek indicates that you’ve been in a recent scuffle, earlier than our little wrestling match.”
Jared paused again looking at Sasha. “However, you’ve clearly never ridden trail before.” Sasha’s brow knit together slightly at the criticism. “You don’t know how to care for your horse’s wounds with the most basic of plants and the stiffness in your back tells me that you’ve probably never ridden for more than a day at a time in your life.” Jared looked plainly at Sasha, only briefly wondering if he should have been as truthful as the young woman had requested.
Sasha stood silent for several moments, appearing to digest the words that he had spoken. She walked over to her packs and sat down, again within arm’s reach of her sword and another long bundle that she always kept close by. Sasha’s own longbow leaned against her packs as well, unstrung but also near at hand. Jared figured that she probably didn’t even notice that she always sat so closely to her weapons. The behavior was second nature to her by now.
“Well, my good man,” Sasha spoke at last, her voice tinged with a certain amount of sarcasm. “You weren’t the only one observing his dinner companion tonight. Would you like to hear my conclusions about you?”
Jared nodded. This should be good for a laugh, Jared thought.
“First, from your odor you obviously haven’t bathed in some time, nor do you usually travel with other people, else you’d have made a better effort to sit downwind. Also, from our first meeting, you’re not used to fighting women. If you were, you would not have avoided such obvious chances to gain the upper hand because of where you would have had to grab me. That weakness may get you killed someday,” Sasha said, while looking at Jared. She seemed pleased by the perplexed expression he must have been wearing on his face, and she continued on in her litany. “Lastly, you spend more time on the trail than you do with other people. Otherwise, you would not have been so kind to my horse and so rude to me.”
Jared sat silent for a short space of time, shocked at her bluntness. Her words were harsh and smarted like a wasp’s sting. The woodsman remained silent, not knowing how to reply. He reached out to the spit over the fire. He pulled a rabbit off the end and placed it on a metal plate he had pulled from his backpack. He offered the spit with the remaining rabbit to Sasha, who sat looking at him, still expecting some type of reply to her words.
“Dinner is ready,” he said flatly, and she took the offered food. Jared pulled his hunting knife from its belt sheath and began cutting off a piece of his meat. Sasha, still curiously looking at the woodsman, pulled her own dagger from her belt and did the same.
They ate in silence for some time before Jared cleared his throat expectantly. Sasha looked up from her meal, an odd expression of anger and sadness on her face. “You’re right,” he said finally. “I don’t travel with people a lot, nor do I often wrestle with women,” a small smile creased his tan face. “That explains my behavior. What about yours?” Jared peered directly into the eyes of the young swordswoman. She flinched slightly, which is the reaction for which Jared had hoped.
Sasha lowered her eyes to the ground and spoke in a low voice, cracking with emotion. “I’m looking for my sister. She was taken. I don’t know to where exactly, but I know she’s south of here towards Binford’s Bluff.” The young woman looked up again at Jared, expectation in her eyes.
Jared stared at her hard, noticing again the strange contrast that this woman was. She couldn’t have been more than twenty years old and yet she carried herself more confidently than many of the veteran soldiers that Jared had seen. Her long red hair was pulled back in a braid that spoke of utility, but if it needed to be put up in such a way, why not cut it off entirely. It was not uncommon, from what Jared had encountered, for a female soldier or mercenary to wear their hair shorter than he did.
Also, there was her manner. She was obviously proud, independent, and confident enough to speak her mind, as her tough description of him revealed, but at times she seemed to be looking for guidance. Perhaps it was the inexperience of youth, but Jared just hoped that Sasha wasn’t looking to him for some kind of lead; he was just as young as she was.
She had been correct in her last observation though. Jared did get along better with animals than people. Animals rarely had ulterior motives when they were nice to you. If they liked you it was clear, if they didn’t they left you alone. Jared gazed again into the eyes of the young woman, trying to read some hidden agenda there. However, she was either really adept at concealing her hidden motives or she had none.
Suddenly, a look of nausea passed over Sasha’s face, and she lowered her dinner onto the blanket on which she sat. Jared set his own plate aside and half-rose before Sasha waved him off. Jared sat back down, wondering what was wrong. His dinner had tasted fine, and he had inspected the rabbits for disease before he had prepared them for dinner. He had seen no sign of illness, but he may have missed something. If there was something wrong with the rabbits, it would not have shown up so quickly though.
Sasha took several deep breaths before her face began to regain its normal shade of pink, but a look of worry still hung there.
“Are you okay?” Jared asked. “Would you like some water?” Jared offered her the water skin that sat on the ground between them.
“No thanks. I’m okay,” Sasha answered between slightly clenched teeth, giving the lie to her words. “Just happens from time to time...” Sasha looked into Jared’s face, pausing as though she were wondering if she should continue. Sasha must have seen something she could trust there and finished her sentence, saying, “It started in Snowhaven, but they’re getting better. Somehow, traveling the road seems to help. It must be the rocking motion of the horse that settles my stomach and eases the pain in my head,” she paused before finishing with, “I changed my mind. I’ll take some of that water please. Thank you.”
Jared obliged. Sasha took the offered waterskin from Jared’s hand and drank heartily. As she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, Jared thought over what the young woman had just shared with him. She had shown him a modicum of trust with her admission and somewhere inside him he knew that she deserved the same in return.
“I’m looking for a murderer,” he admitted. “Actually a murderer’s murderer.” He rose and began to rummage around in his backpack. “Unfortunately, I don’t have much to go on. I never actually saw who did the killing. Well the second killing.... it’s complicated,” he said. He pulled the long slender box out of his pack, the leather cord still wrapped around the wood to keep it closed after he had had to pry it open with his knife. “The only thing I have to go on is a story from Snowhaven and this.” Jared untied the box he had recovered from the scholar’s house and pulled out the long black dagger. Sasha’s eyes widened at the sight of the skull pommel dagger that the woodsman held. “I found a similar blade in Mica but it was confiscated by the local sheriff.”
Jared watched as Sasha’s hand, seemingly of its own will, drifted to settle on the hilt of her sword. Slowly, Jared closed the box and retied the leather cord, perplexed at the effect the dagger had had on his new companion. He returned the slender case to his backpack and raised his hands in front of him, his palms facing Sasha in an expression of peace. Her shoulders relaxed, but her hand remained resting on pommel of her sword.
“Where did you get that?” she asked, a mix of confusion a
nd fear in her voice.
Chapter 9
The sun was blinding, even scattered as it was coming through the tree tops that had finally stopped spinning. Katya struggled to stay conscious, trying to focus on something around her and not the void that still lingered in her mind. Her body felt like she had fallen off a mountain side and slid all the way to the bottom. Every part of her felt bruised and her stomach lurched. Quickly rolling to her side, she retched. The queasiness remained, but she could concentrate now.
She lay beside thousands of tiny crystals, clustered into a mound of some kind. The crystals had left their mark on her back, she realized as she touched a hand to it and felt wet blood around deep cuts. Slowly she managed to sit up, a painful groan upon her lips. Something warm dripped from her nose. Wiping at it with the sleeve of her robe and then looking at the cloth, she realized it was fresh blood. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked around at the strange forest in which she had been thrown. Thoughts of Sasha suddenly seared into her mind, leaving it pounding painfully.
“Sasha...” she softly cried with a hand to her throbbing temple.
“Don’t be sad, big beast,” a voice squeaked and something touched the sorceress’ hand that supported her weight.
A tiny man stared up at her with sharp black eyes. Had Katya been standing, she guessed he would stand no taller than the top of her ankle. His long brown hair was tied up into a topknot with a blade of grass, revealing the pointed tips of his ears. Two small leaves fastened together with grass on the sides served as a loincloth. A pair of gossamer dragonfly wings twittered on his back. He was patting her hand softly.
Katya recoiled, leaping to her feet and instantly regretting her action, as her head began to spin with weakness. Instinctively, she drew power that should have come easily at her calling; however, she only felt the barest whisper of energy enter her hands, and they glowed feebly. The power was there to be drawn upon, but she was just too weak and could only draw the smallest trickle into her body. Unfortunately, with the power also came a wave of nausea that made her lose her footing. She fell into a pile of a blankets that had until recently been covering her.
Ignoring her flailing, the little man waited for her to settle and then flew up to land on her nose. Anchoring himself by grasping the edge of her nostril, he leaned over its brink and looked up inside.
“Echo… echo,” he called.
Katya let the deplorable energy fade from her hands and plucked him off her nose. With her head beginning to clear, she tried to hold him tight enough so that he could not escape and loose enough as to not squish him. She did her best to concentrate on the creature before her, as the wave of nausea slightly retreated.
“Who are you? What are you?” Katya asked, doing her best to put a scowl on her face. She knew she probably only accomplished looking a little less like she was going to throw up on him.
“My name is Niko. I am a Nhyme. What are you, big beast?” Niko seemed unconcerned in her grasp and rested his chin on his hand while leaning an elbow on one of her knuckles.
“I am a Human,” Katya answered.
“Nope, never heard of you,” he said. “You sure slept for a long time though. I tried my best to get you up when you fell. I mean, I’m strong and all, but you’re huge.” Niko’s arms spread in an expression of her perceived largeness. “It was some feat to pull you off the crystals.” Niko pointed to the mound of crystal over Katya’s shoulder. “It took twenty of us to move you.” Niko looked at her critically for a moment. “Say, do you like cheese?”
Before she could answer, a small smile forming on her dry cracked lips, a buzzing filled the air. At first Katya thought it was her head rebelling against being semi-vertical, but then about thirty creatures like Niko were suddenly flying at her with small spears. They swarmed about her, circling twice before finally coming to a halt, like a horde of angry bees, their chests puffed up proudly and their faces stern. Each of the Nhyme had mismatched leaf and bark armor save for one. A rather muscular Nhyme hovered before her nose. He wore a full suit of bark armor with thorns coming off his shoulders. This fully equipped winged creature had shortly cropped sandy hair and the same black eyes as Niko.
“I am Cumo, Head Warrior. Let the Elder’s apprentice go or I will tell my company to attack.”
Niko was making faces behind Katya’s fingers at the warrior, pulling on his pointed ears and sticking out his tiny tongue.
Katya looked at the twigs pointed at her, confident that even in her weakened state she was in no danger, but she decided to play along and released Niko.
“Aww, Cumo, learn to have a little fun. Big beast and I were having a nice chat before you got here,” he said as he flew to her shoulder.
“My name is Katya,” the sorceress offered.
Cumo ignored Niko, continuing to focus on the strange visitor.
“Very well, Katya,” Cumo said, “you are under arrest for trespassing in our forest. Only Nhyme are allowed here. I don’t know how you snuck past our defenses, but you will come with me now. The Elder will decide what to do with you, that is if you don’t make me order my warriors to deal with you now,” he raised an eyebrow at Katya. After a few moments, her shoulders visibly relaxed. She stood slowly and did her best not to vomit. Standing for several moments, while she waited for the trees to stop dancing around her, she hid her distress by taking her time straightening her torn robes. The Nhyme watched her curiously.
“Okay, Cumo, I will go with you,” Katya said, feeling like she was steady enough to walk on her own.
“A wise decision. Follow me,” Cumo said, turning with his fellow Nhyme warriors trailing behind only when Katya began to follow slowly. Her gait was wobbly. “Baku, go on ahead and tell The Elder that we are coming to see him.”
“Yes, sir,” a dark featured Nhyme responded. Baku spun while rising up in the air, instantly transforming into an owl and flying ahead quickly. Katya’s mouth dropped open and she stumbled.
“Shape shifters,” she gawked, awe plain upon her face.
Niko flew back to the crystals for a moment, scooping up a small satchel, and then hurried back, landing on Katya’s shoulder again. He was instantly delighted at how the velvet of her robe felt under his bare feet.
“OooOoo so soft. What is it made of?” he asked, as they moved away from the crystal mound.
Ignoring his question, Katya took long deep breaths, trying to clear her head and settle her stomach. She asked Niko, “Can you all shape change? What can you change into? Are you limited to smaller animals? How...”
Katya had to stop walking; she realized she had used all her breath asking her questions. She leaned against a tree, and the Nhyme warriors immediately stopped. They looked at her warily.
“Whoa there,” Niko said to Katya, as he waived off the warriors who began to hover closer. The armed Nhyme looked to Cumo who nodded slightly. They stopped where they were. “You talk fast. Yes, Nhyme can shape change as you call it. Only into animals our size though. I prefer a crow personally.” He grinned so wide it looked like his face would split. “But first, you might want to sit down, you don’t look so good.” Katya wobbled to a sitting position, discovering she was weaker than she had thought.
In a few minutes, Katya regained her feet. After a short walk and a few more stops along the way for Katya to rest, she and her Nhyme escort arrived in what looked to be a town of sorts. Her questions for Niko faded from her lips, as they entered a clearing, and her eyes widened as she looked about. Thousands of small houses made of bark were nestled into any available nook in the surrounding trees. Tiny male and female faces peered down from the houses at Katya as she passed with her entourage. All sorts of small animals, mainly squirrels and chipmunks, scampered along the branches. Katya wondered how many of them were Nhyme and how many were real animals.
A female sweeping her front porch with a black and white feather scowled at the sorceress. Soon a trail of children, each no longer than one of her fingernails, flew behind her, some
of the braver ones landing next to Niko on her shoulder. Her little companion began the Great Story of how the ground had shook and the sky turned black when he found Katya, half-dead at the crystals. The crystals had spoken to him, whispering their secrets so that he might cast powerful magic to bring her back from the brink of death. Her appearance was an omen of great importance he said. Katya let him drone on, amused at his version of what had happened. She also wondered at the part of the tale he told before she had awoken. Had he really saved her? She thought. The children’s eyes were wide with wonder. After his story was finished, the children began to trail off or play hide and seek in the folds of the young woman’s robe. Katya walked even more slowly, afraid that in her weakened state she might stumble and crush them.
“Can the children change as well?” Katya asked Niko.
“Nah not until they are at least fifty.”
“Fifty?! How old do Nhyme get?” The sorceress exclaimed.
“I am a hundred and twenty and I am barely considered an adult. The Elder is said to be over six hundred summers. How old are you, big... er Katya?”
“I am nineteen winters,” she answered.
“You sure are big for a baby,” Niko grinned. Katya laughed. Pain immediately lanced across her back, and her head began to throb. She stopped, afraid she might stumble again. She kept her hands at her sides to make sure she didn’t crush any of the Nhyme children that began fleeing in terror from the folds of her robes. “There now, you rest,” Niko said concern in his eyes as he patted her shoulder where he sat, “we’ll take care of those wounds on your back after you meet with the Elder. We weren’t able to turn you over to heal your back, but now that you’re up we can get to them. Besides, sleeping on your face isn’t very comfortable.” Katya smiled weakly. “Try to focus on something else nice in the meantime… like cheese! Cheese is good. It will help, I swear.” Katya nodded and decided to continue on in silence for a bit, taking in the sights. She only had a few more steps to do so before they had reached their destination.