by Brett Vonsik
“We travel through his lands,” the scruffy baraan sharur said with caution and concern.
Rogaan wondered at the “his” statement. Whose lands? He looked at the scruffy sharur, then at Kardul, then to the others for an answer. The sharur stared at Kardul, anxiously waiting for the Kiuri’Ner’s response.
“Whose lands?” Pax asked.
Kardul looked to be considering something and struggling with a decision. His eyes became fixed on the ground in front of him as he answered, “The dark robes’ axe.”
“I don’t see a way around that path,” the scruffy sharur added.
“I know, Adul.” Kardul snapped. Kardul took a breath and exhaled slowly. “Getting in front of the caravan, we’ll have to travel hard and use Claw Pass. That should give us a half day lead on the jailers.”
“And if the dark axe finds us?” Adul asked. “He’s a dangerous shadow in these Wilds. Knows every trail and pass. He commands the animals. And he can best….”
“Enough!” Kardul snapped at Adul. The bulky Kiuri’Ner looked about to bite a stone in half. If Rogaan read Kardul correctly, the sharur protector of the pathways…Adul was afraid. Maybe of the dark axe, but more practically he seemed fearful that his companions would not follow where he led. “The dark axe is all of that…and more. He’s merciless, and sharp with trailing. Maybe he’ll find us if he’s looking for this tellen. We’ve dealt with difficult ones before. Keep our smarts and ahead of him is what we must do.”
“Let us not forget his lightless warriors,” added Trundiir. The tellen held an angry stare directed at Kardul a little too long for Rogaan to miss or dismiss it. “That axe will have a hunger for us all.”
“Trundiir speaks truth,” Adul agreed with a long, depressed sigh. “He’ll hunt us and cut us down…one by one, if not all at once.”
Rogaan looked at Kardul and his companions, feeling confused and concerned. These forest warriors were hardened hunters and capable and led by Kardul. That made them dangerous to most opposing them. Many in Brigum confirmed Kardul’s reputation to be the best of all in the Wilds and a dangerous one to cross in a fight. Now all the companions, including Kardul, seemed to be struggling with fear and fating themselves to dying at the blade of this dark axe.
“You did not need to kill them,” Rogaan interjected, thinking he was helping the conversation and growing tension. “They were taking us to the temple to find help to rescue my father.”
“Our parents…all of them,” Pax added with a stern look passing between him and Rogaan. Shame flashed through Rogaan at his friend’s correcting assertion.
“Are you sick in mind?” Adul asked incredulously. “No one seeks the dark robes.”
“I told him dat,” Pax interjected. “He would no listen to me. Thinks we need help from them kind.”
Rogaan returned a stern look at Pax in the hope he would be quiet about their plans. Rogaan did not feel Pax’s decisions were solid or straight of thought. Rogaan was desperate and held a glimmer of hope that his father’s trust in the Ebon Circle would find him the aid he sought. Embarrassment heated his cheeks a little, and his throat tightened a bit at being found to have been so desperate that he was willing to sell his light to the dark ones.
“What would give you a thought the dark temple would serve you?” Kardul asked Rogaan with narrowing eyes.
Rogaan swallowed hard at being put to the question. He did not want to reveal his father’s instructions to the Kiuri’Ner. He feared it would be a mark against his gaining their further aid, and possibly prevent him from being accepted into Brigum’s Kiuri’Ner.
“His father wanted him ta go ta da temple,” Pax answered for Rogaan. At Pax’s utterance, Rogaan leveled a glaring stare at his friend. Pax returned the glare with a ‘Who, me?’ expression.
“Is this true, youngling?” Adul asked, with a tone demanding an answer.
Rogaan felt trapped into answering. Too much was in the open about his father’s wishes. He nodded then answered flatly, “Yes.”
“By the Ancients -- we should not be here,” Adul burst out in complaint.
“I should have sought answers from your women before going off after you,” Kardul said to himself. “Did they know you were on the path to them?”
“I do not know,” Rogaan answered honestly. “I was following the last instructions given me by my father. I think he believed I would be safe in the temple.”
“Nobody is safe there,” Adul stated as he looked to his companions for some indication of affirmation. All but Trundiir nodded their agreement. The tellen just stood expressionless, as if not part of the conversation.
“Was the dark temple expecting you?” Kardul asked with a growl. The point was important to him for some reason. The Kiuri’Ner wanted an answer.
“Not by any announcement,” Rogaan replied. “I think this was some pre-arrangement between my father and them if something happened to him.”
Kardul seemed relieved. He took on the look of a thinker not seeing what was right in front of him, but some vision in his head as he put things together. He spoke quietly, more to himself, but loud enough for Rogaan to hear him, “I always thought the old tellen had dealings with the dark robes….”
Kardul looked up to see everyone looking at him. He realized his last words were heard by all. It was obvious by the sour look on the baraan’s face that he wanted those words back. The Kiuri’Ner came to understand something important to him. What, Rogaan had no idea. Kardul recovered his expression and overall demeanor quickly, putting on his usual serious face while straightening his back.
“We have an advantage on the dark temple,” Kardul announced. “It’ll take them time to figure out what’s happened. Let’s make haste traveling through the pass and parts beyond.”
Kardul looked to Rogaan with confident eyes. “Let’s hope the Ebon Circle doesn’t find further need to gather you into their temple. Your father isn’t our focus…presently. Getting you away from these parts and to civilization is.”
“Our parents…” Pax corrected Kardul with heated eyes.
Kardul shot Pax a “be cautious” glare, before softening it. “Of course, youngling.”
“Travel light?” Adul asked as if he knew the answer.
“It’ll be difficult even for him to find us if we keep moving…fast,” Kardul answered, sounding almost as if he had convinced himself. “Keep doubling with the younglings, unless they’ve learned to handle steeds better since dawn. Trail the rider-less sarigs and switch animals when we take our short rests.”
The sharur each quickly dropped one saddlebag from their sarigs, leaving only food and bare essentials in their remaining bags. Adul removed two of his three battle sticks from his saddle mount, tossing them both on the growing pile of equipment. Trundiir tossed a hammer atop the spears, then several cooking pans. He grumbled something about travel rations as he remounted his sarig. He held out his hand to Suhd, then waited silently, unmoving. Suhd looked to Rogaan with uncertain eyes, seeming to ask his permission.
“You are the lightest of the three and I will not handle you...come,” Trundiir rumbled.
An intense wave of jealousy rippled through Rogaan. It was an unpleasant feeling, which he fought down. I must learn to ride these sarigs. With a nod from Rogaan, Suhd allowed Trundiir to lift her up with great ease and set her behind him, where she slipped her feet into the saddle footholds and grabbed the saddle handles with white knuckles.
Pax was already seated behind the stocky baraan sharur and was making himself comfortable atop their sarig. Rogaan realized he did not know the sharur’s name Pax rode with, or the name of the tall, lean sharur now impatiently in saddle waiting for Rogaan. With an uncertain lack of grace, Rogaan managed to climb onto the sarig’s saddle and seat himself behind his riding companion. Rogaan swore he heard the baraan snicker a little. He quickly placed hands and feet as he had before, in and on the saddle holds then waited to start moving. The Kiuri’Ner swept the trail behind them with a large le
af-covered tree limb, raking over footprints to their small clearing then tossed the branch over the discarded items when he was satisfied with his work. In a blink, Kardul was in his saddle and moving out, with Adul close in trail. Trundiir with Suhd took up the third position with Pax and his sharur fourth, and Rogaan and his sharur bringing up the rear. With everyone trailing him, Kardul set off at a grueling pace.
Chapter 14
Of Rivers and Mountains
Clear skies and a warm sun gave way to clouds in the late morning as cooler air blew out of the southwest. Kardul kept the pace fast for the band of companions and their seven sarigs, leading them through fern and hardwood forests of the southernmost end of the Valley of the Claw where it joined with the Tamarad River and opened out into the Wilds of western Shuruppak. Rogaan’s legs had long since painfully cramped from trying to keep his sore backside off the saddle, and he gritted his teeth with each jarring reminder of his failure. Instead, he did his best to keep his thoughts on other things...Suhd. Glimpses of her made his heart pound harder and his pains disappear. Then he would lose sight of her as the sarigs maneuvered around obstructions and thickets. It was at such times that Rogaan would concentrate on where Kardul led them. It seemed to Rogaan that Kardul led the troupe on old and less-used game trails, by the overgrown look of them. The Kiuri’Ner appeared to know these forest paths far better than Rogaan expected by the way he and his hunters spoke of his land and navigated it. If the Ebon Circle’s dark axe caused them as much concern as they held in their eyes and on their tongues, he thought they would have avoided this region and would have been unfamiliar with the ways of fast travel through these parts. It seemed that he had misjudged much about Kardul and his companions.
Kardul raised a fist, signaling all to stop. Everyone pulled up, bringing their sarigs to a halt. Rogaan felt relieved that he could stretch his legs without having to worry over falling from the big steed. The sharur sharing the beast seemed to be unaffected by the long ride, and sat in his saddle scanning for unknown and unseen dangers from under the wide brim of his green hat. Kardul steered his sarig back along his sharur.
“This river is thick with snapjaws at this end of the Valley of the Claw,” Kardul instructed, looking at his sharur as he spoke, making sure they heeded his words. “The water runs slow here and is shallow enough for the sarigs to cross while touching bottom. Follow close. When I move to cross, don’t hesitate, or you’ll allow time for the snapjaws to gather and attack.”
Anxiety rippled through Rogaan. Dangers lurking in the water unnerved him. The unknown had that effect on him, and he did not like that about himself. He swallowed hard. Looking at Pax and Suhd, they held no better faces than he felt. They both were scared, though Pax was doing his best to not show it. Suhd was wide-eyed with fear making Rogaan’s heart hurt.
“Ruumoor,” Kardul said to the rider with Rogaan. “Stay behind me. The others will follow after you.”
Ruumoor simply nodded in acknowledgment, then followed Kardul as he urged his sarig to the front of column. Pax, with just a few hints of his blue face paint still visible, looked at Rogaan quizzically. Rogaan shrugged uncomfortably. Suhd looked at Rogaan with fear and hurt eyes. Rogaan’s heart sank as shame grabbed him hard. Rogaan leaned into Ruumoor.
“Let Suhd and Trundiir go before us,” Rogaan pleaded.
“Kardul gives the orders,” Ruumoor answered him dispassionately.
Rogaan felt powerless and pained from the abandoned look Suhd continued to give him. Kardul motioned for his sharur to follow. He edged his steed forward while calmly looking up and down the river. Rogaan also looked at the river. It took his breath away: snapjaws everywhere and of all sizes, too many to count, and many with mouths agape, sunning themselves along the river banks. An aggressive group of snapjaws on the far side of the river surrounded a partially eaten carcass, a large one…of what, Rogaan could only guess. They tore at the lightless flesh, twisting and ripping it apart, then swallowing the chunks whole before either returning for another bite or retreating to a place to sun and digest their meals without being molested.
“How are we going to cross the river without being eaten?” Rogaan asked aloud, though his question was not directed at Ruumoor. The river was less than fifty strides wide, but not much less. A few boulders and built-up mud and tree limb islands not much bigger than the sarig he sat on rose above the slow-moving water, with subdued froths of foam forming in the turbulent water downstream of the outcrops. More than a dozen eyes and snouts broke the water’s surface, from what Rogaan could see.
“Water’s still cool,” Kardul said quietly.
“Good,” Ruumoor said to himself with what sounded like relief in his voice.
“What does that mean?” Rogaan asked.
Ruumoor tensed as if annoyed at the question then answered, “Snapjaws need warm water to hunt with speed. With the waters cool they’ll swim slower and won’t likely attack.”
Rogaan felt a little relief from his anxiety, but just a little. Kardul motioned for them to move out, and immediately plunged his sarig into the water where its belly was still dry ten strides from the shore. Ruumoor urged their sarig forward, with the tethered sarig following close. Each sharur urged their sarigs into the river with little trouble then made their way across the water as quickly as they could. Close to midway, the water became deeper, rising up the flanks of their sarig, high enough to soak Rogaan’s boots and legs. Cold! Unpleasant, but tolerable. A few snapjaws upriver from them were lazily approaching with eyes and snouts above the water, allowing the current to carry them as much as they propelled themselves with their powerful tails. Kardul was close to the opposite bank when Rogaan heard a splash and yelling from behind. Twisting, he saw the rider-less sarig trailing behind Pax and his sharur. The animal was in the teeth of a large snapjaw. The sarig whined as the big snapjaw kept jaws clamped on the steed’s left shoulder, dragging it down while it struggled to escape. The tether of the doomed animal tied to the sarig Pax and Ruumoor rode strained, dragging them backward into deeper water. Pax and his sharur were yelling at each other in disagreement before a flash of metal in Pax’s hand cut the tether, freeing them and condemning the grappled sarig behind them to a grisly death. Rogaan found himself hoping the former steed drowned before the snapjaws started eating it. More snapjaws were drawn to the action in the middle of the river, many slipping into the slow current from both banks. Kardul and his sharur hastened their sarigs to clear the water, and did so in a hurry. On the bank, as they left the water, Kardul quickly checked each sharur and sarig to see that they were unharmed, stating he intended to leave behind any wounded or bleeding animals, rather than beckoning flesh eaters along the trail to hunt them.
They set off at the same hard pace Kardul had them travel before crossing the river. He led them along more overgrown game trails with the intent of avoiding dangerous tanniyn. He did so successfully, with only two tense encounters: one where they came upon a lone bull shieldback grazing low shrubs at the side of the trail that they had to give a wide berth, and the second when a pair of juvenile redfins gave them chase before seeing and catching easier prey. Afterward, Kardul led them unchallenged into the low mountain ridge fingers off the Spine Mountains, with the sun just short of its zenith. The mountain trails Kardul led them on were barely visible to Rogaan’s eyes, until they climbed halfway up the five hundred-stride-high ridge where the trail became wider, and clear of most overgrowth. For much of the afternoon, they traveled snaking trails, following the rising ridge spines. Leather leaf trees, flowers of many colors, and baraan-tall ferns on the valley floor gave way to pines, mostly red and lavender flowers, and smaller-statured ferns as they climbed, thick at first, then becoming more sparse the higher they ascended the rocky ridges. The wind picked up, now constantly blowing out of the southwest, strong enough to throw off arrows from their marks as dark clouds swept over the ridges, threatening to let loose rain.
Kardul halted the band of companions just short of the ridg
e’s high saddle where they would pass over, then start their downward journey. He picked out a flat area along the trail large enough for the band to rest the sarigs while the clouds grew more threatening in the late afternoon. Rogaan did not possess the skill to predict winds and storms, but even he could not miss the warning signs of heavy rains coming.
“Dismount,” Kardul commanded.
“What’s that?” A voice spoke, but Rogaan was uncertain of whose.
Rogaan turned around and looked about, finding Adul pointing to a ridge far below. On the trail atop that ridge traveled a lone rider, sitting tall upon a large sarig. The rider, dressed in a dark cloak, swiftly moved behind rock cover, where he disappeared, not emerging from the far side of the outcrop as one would expect. Rogaan did not distinguish anything discerning of the rider in the moments he had to spy him, but something about the rider struck a chord of familiarity.
“It was him...wasn’t it?” Ruumoor sounded unnerved.
“Who?” Trundiir grumbled.
“That dark axe,” Ishmu answered with a concerned tone.
Adul dismounted and tied his sarig off to a small tree. He shook his head as he approached the others. “We’ve ridden the steeds hard. They need rest before we start down.”
“Whoever it is, he’s a half a day behind,” Kardul declared as he tied his sarig off to another small tree. “And if he keeps hiding from our eyes, he’ll get further behind. Adul, keep watch. We rest the animals a while, then start down the trail before the sun sets.”
The afternoon wind at this height, with rains approaching, whipped the sharur’s cloaks. It blew cool, almost cold for Rogaan. With arms wrapped around each other, Pax and Suhd huddled next to Rogaan for warmth as Kardul demanded a fireless camp. The three younglings grumbled as they nestled together in a rock outcrop less than ten strides from the sarigs. The rocks broke the chill breeze, allowing them to rest without shivering too much. Trundiir casually tossed them a wrap of dried meat and a water skin as he passed, then disappeared before he could be thanked. Pax and Suhd grabbed at the food and water and gulped a fair share of both down without looking at Rogaan. Their manners did not surprise him, since he had had his first meal with them at their home more than a year ago. Rogaan thought then their behavior odd and rude, but realized they had little and had learned to make quick work of any food within arm’s reach. Rogaan smiled while staring at Suhd. Her arm and leg brushed his from time to time, sending him into a sense of elation. He felt content...happy. He also felt guilty for his contentment. After all, his father and their parents were jailed and being taken away. How can I feel this way? Rogaan asked himself, with a growing disdain dripping from his inner thoughts.