“We? Who said anything about we? This is my map, my treasure.”
“Treasure! There’s treasure?”
“I don’t know for sure. Maybe,” Savaric replied sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders.
“You think you’re getting rid of me? Even if it’s maybe treasure? I’m coming,” Elias said defiantly.
“Don’t you have someplace to go? Family or something?”
“Naw. Thrown out just like you.”
“Oh.”
“So where are we going first?” Elias repeated.
Savaric placed the three map fragments on the ground so that the pieces overlapped and showed the whole country. He pointed to a drawing in the center of the map showing the mouth of a cave.
“I’m going here, to Thor’s cave. The scribe said it was a few days’ walk from here.”
“Then that’s where I’m going too,” Elias said, his jaw jutting out.
Savaric looked at him for a few minutes, thinking of the cold and lonely nights he had spent walking alone to Deva, then sighed. “All right, but it might be dangerous, and I can’t promise that you’ll be safe.”
Elias continued the defiant look, but finally succumbed with a nod. He then jumped on top of Savaric with a joyful whoop and wrestled him to the ground. The play fighting ended with Savaric whipping Elias onto his stomach and pushing his face into the ground.
“That was too easy. I’ll have to teach you a few moves.”
“Ya, ya. Yer the lucky one today. When are we leaving?”
“Lucky? Oh really? Fine, let’s see how you hold up. We’ll leave right now.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
The two boys gathered up their belongings and the food, which didn’t take long since Elias’s breakout left him with nothing. They were on the wrong side of Deva to get to the southern road and had to circle around the town through the brush and brambles of back gardens and farmers’ fields. By the time they got around the town, the light had faltered and the extra physical push it took to get through brush had exhausted them. They found another meadow hidden from the southern road and rested for the night.
Savaric slept fitfully, twisting under his cloak. When he finally slept, he dreamed of the woman in white again. A strange white glowing light surrounded her as she moved through the trees, passing through branches and trunks like a ghost. Her black hair flowed out around her as if she floated under water. When she lunged close, she suddenly changed into a crow with the head of a dragon. As the creature rushed toward him, Savaric woke abruptly, realizing that Elias was pushing him awake.
“You’re screaming again, you idiot. Every creature for miles, man and beast alike, is going to come looking for us now,” he hissed.
Savaric clamped his hand over his mouth. “I was? I am? I was dreaming of the woman in white again. She had turned into a crow with a dragon’s head and was coming for me.” Shivering, he pulled his cloak closer around him. He felt like he had just walked through a fine mist that had doused him from toe to head. A slight breeze blew, cooling him further. Beside him, Elias’s teeth chattered.
“Tomorrow you are going back to Deva. I need something to wear besides these lockup rags or I’ll die of cold before we get anywhere,” Elias said matter-of-factly.
Savaric nodded then flung his cloak out, careful to keep the crocks away from his side, and included Elias in its folds. They stoked the fire and waited for dawn.
After eating a quick breakfast as the dawn colored the sky pink, Savaric went back to Deva. He bought more than just a cloak; he also bought two tunics and breeches, a pack to hold a change of clothes, flints, and other supplies. And a lot of food. He had not had to spend anything while he made good wages at the sheriff’s stable and didn’t want to risk running out of food. Savaric hated being hungry. After a quick uneventful trip, he got back to camp by midmorning.
“Here, you demanding whelp. Try these on,” Savaric said, mocking a brusque tone.
Elias put the clothes on, sighing with relief to feel something covering his skin. “Ahh. You can’t imagine how good this feels. I thought I’d never be warm again. Even at midday it felt as if, like, down in the very depths of me it was still too cold to warm up. Thank you, Savaric.”
Savaric nodded. “By the way, if we meet anyone on the road, my name is Tristan. I don’t know how long the sheriff is going to look for me, and even one Savaric is one too many in his eyes.”
“Tristan, right.”
“Let’s be on our way.”
Elias pulled the pack onto his back. Soon they were walking down the southern road to parts unknown.
As they walked, they crossed paths with other travelers but kept to themselves as much as they could. When asked, they offered different names to almost every group, ensuring that anyone following them and asking after them had a very broken trail to trace.
On the second afternoon of walking, they took a break and rested in the shade of a tree that stood about ten yards off the road. The branches of the tree swept low to the ground, giving them a broken view of anyone passing by.
Savaric lay lazily chewing a blade of grass, leaning against the trunk of the tree, his gaze in the direction of the road. He suddenly started and then gasped a little and motioned to Elias to be quiet and still.
Someone he knew was walking down the road.
CHAPTER 13
“Tis the night – the night Of the grave’s delight, And the warlocks are at their play; Ye think that without The wild winds shout, But no, it is they - it is they.”
- Alexander Cleveland Coxe
The two boys watched the man lumbering down the road, his thick meaty body swinging like a caveman’s. The man’s shoulders sloped to the base of his head where other men had necks. The boys stayed completely still, holding their breath. When the man went around a bend in the road and dropped out of sight and earshot, they exhaled a bit.
Elias slowly turned his head and looked at Savaric, his eyes huge. “Do you know who that beast was? I have never seen a man so big!”
Savaric leaned back against the tree again. “That…was Warin.”
“Who is Warin?”
“I stole the map from him.”
“From that? How in the world did you get anything away from that bull?”
“I was just lucky. More importantly, how is it that he is here now? On the same road that I am on?” Savaric put his head back on the tree, his hand on his forehead. “And how am I going to keep him from finding me? He could break my neck with a little flick of his wrist.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you took his treasure,” Elias chided.
“He couldn’t have ever seen me. It’s impossible…” His voice trailed off. “The only way is if he found out that I left the village and his thick brain somehow put two and two together. Nicola!” he spat.
“Who’s Nicola?”
“My mother. She must have told him that I was out on my ear when she was at the alehouse getting soused.” He sighed. “Now we’ve got two hounds on our tails, the sheriff and Warin.” He paused. “At least I saw Warin before he saw me.”
Elias shivered. “I don’t ever want to see that beast coming at me angry. You still need to teach me some fighting moves, right?”
“Yes. But in the meantime, I think we had better start traveling at night. Let’s get further off the road and get some rest so we can cover some ground tonight.”
“But first teach me some moves, and then we’ll rest.”
“Yes. But let’s get away from the road first.”
After walking away from the road for a while, Savaric looked for some tree branches or saplings that he could use. It took over an hour, but he finally found one the right size that he could cut down with the limited tools he had. He stripped off the bark and leaves and whittled it down roughly, leaving a knotty ball on one end. Then the lessons began.
First, he tossed it to Elias, who caught it midair.
“Try and hit me.”
&nbs
p; Elias didn’t hesitate and swung it toward Savaric, who quickly grabbed it out of his hands.
“First lesson—you have to grip it hard, always. Or it is taken away from you and used against you. Second—you have to swing fast. Or it is taken away from you and used against you. Try again.”
Elias nodded and deftly caught the cudgel again. He swung again, this time whipping it through the air. Savaric cupped his body to get away from the blow. “Better,” he said. The lesson continued, with Savaric pointing out good places to aim for with the knotty ball and combinations of thrusting blows and chopping motions.
“We’d better get some rest if we are going to cover ground tonight,” Savaric said, ending the lesson. They gathered some brush for a fire and ate. Before long they fell asleep, exhausted by the fear, fighting, and heat of the day.
Savaric opened his eyes and looked at the sky.
It’s still dark out, hours of sleep to go, he thought.
Then he remembered they had planned to walk tonight! He rolled over and pushed at Elias.
“Come on, time to go,” he said groggily.
“Mmmm,” Elias replied.
Savaric got up, put on his cloak, and stumbled away from the camp, making sure to check that his precious pine needles still sat firmly in their hiding places.
After taking time for the sleep to fall away, they packed their belongings and walked back to the road. They watched the road carefully for a while, making sure no one moved in either direction.
They walked in silence, listening to every sound. The only thing they heard was the wind in the trees, crickets chirping, and brooks burbling as they passed by.
After a while, Elias whispered, “Savaric?”
“Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
“Thor’s Cave.”
“I know that, but how do you know how to get there?”
“I’ll ask someone.”
“How are you going to ask anyone? There’s no one out here. We’re avoiding everyone.”
“Oh, uh. Well. I have a plan for that.”
“Oh,” Elias replied.
They walked in silence for a while longer.
“Savaric?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the plan?”
“We’ll walk till it gets close to dawn. Then we’ll find a village or a farm. We’ll wait till they wake up and come outside, and then we’ll ask them.”
“Oh, good plan!” Elias said brightly, swinging his fighting stick.
“Thanks. Watch where you swing that thing.”
As dawn approached, the two boys trudged along the road, looking for people. They smelled the scent of a cooking fire before they saw the little cottage with a garden, tucked back in a copse of trees away from the road.
They collapsed onto the ground and waited for the inhabitants to stir. As they nodded off to sleep, the cottage door made an enormous creak as it opened. A young woman stepped out, stretching and blinking in the early morning sunlight. She stood for a moment and then walked over to a pail hanging on the fence post and strolled, humming, down a well-worn path that stretched away from the road.
Savaric tapped Elias’s shoulder, and the two stood and walked up to the cleared ground in front of the cottage where they waited for her to come back. A few minutes passed, and she came around the corner of the cottage, shrieked, and dropped the pail of water, which fell to the ground but landed on its bottom. A lot of the water sloshed out onto the dusty ground.
“What are you doing here, and why are you trying to scare me like that?” she demanded.
“We just wanted to…” Savaric started to say.
“Oh look, I’ll have to go back and get some more. See what you’ve done?” the young woman said, exasperated, pushing her blonde hair back behind her ear. The boys looked down at the pail.
“Oh, sorry,” Savaric said. “If you can just help us, we’ll go get some more water for you.”
She looked at them suspiciously, but her face changed quickly. “Well, what do you want then? Food? We can spare a bit, I suppose. Meat pies be good for you? Let me see if we have any left from yesterday.” She turned and abruptly went inside the cottage.
“Actually…” Savaric said, trailing off.
A few minutes later she came back out, two small meat pies in her hand. “Here you go. What, you didn’t get the water yet? Let me empty this so I can get a full bucket out of you.”
The two boys gobbled down the meat pies, licking the sauce off their fingers with relish. With the pail pressed in their hands, they followed the path to a small stream bubbling behind the cottage.
“You ever talk to girls, Savaric? Because you are terrible at asking for directions,” Elias said crossly, the pail slopping water on his breeches. “How is it that I am fetching water right now?”
“If you are so wonderful, you ask,” Savaric growled.
A few minutes later, they were back on their way down the southern road. “Was that so hard?” Elias said, ribbing Savaric with his elbow. Savaric blushed and playfully pushed Elias.
“She said we should come to the path by the end of the day. She said to look for the witch tree and that we couldn’t miss it. I wonder what she meant by that?”
“I guess we’ll find out, eh?”
The boys continued walking for a short time, then retreated to a shady hollow to sleep out the day.
They awoke as the sun shone low in the sky, refreshed from uninterrupted sleep but with their stomachs growling. They tucked into their packed food and quickly continued on their way.
“I dreamed of the witch tree,” said Elias. “In my dream, it was a tree a witch had flown into when she was chasing another witch. The other witch cast a spell on her as she flew so that the first witch flew into the tree and was stuck there forever.”
Savaric shivered. “I hope it isn’t like that. I don’t want to see that face peering out at me in the middle of the night.”
“It’ll be awhile before we even get close, so don’t scare yourself before it’s time,” Elias said.
Savaric said nothing in reply, his face set grimly.
As the sun set into the western sky, a cold bitter wind blew up, increasing in intensity until to their chagrin, it began to rain. It fell in a drizzle at first, then continuously harder until they could no longer see the road more than a few feet in front of them.
“We have to find some shelter,” Savaric shouted over the gales of wind.
Elias nodded. He squinted off to the side of the road. “I saw light back there a few minutes ago. Maybe we can find a barn or something.” The two boys turned around and made their way back to where Elias had seen the light, then carefully stepped off the road and onto a little pathway. A small pinprick of light shone in the distance. As they drew closer to the light, they saw the outlines of a cave with a fire built on the very edges of its mouth. Elias continued to walk in the direction of the cave, but Savaric pulled him down to the ground by his cloak.
“What are you doing? We don’t know who is in there, you fool.”
“Oh, sorry. Do you care who is keeping warm and dry in there, out of the rain? I don’t. I just want in!”
“Warin, you dolt. We have to make sure it’s not Warin!”
Deflated, Elias crawled over to the base of a tree and curled up in a ball, his head resting on his knees. “You’re so smart, you figure out who’s in there,” he grumbled.
Savaric hesitated and backed up into the trees and then circled wide of the cave’s entrance, to the side of the hill. He dropped to his belly and crawled to the side of the opening, trying to position himself to peer in without the glare of the fire obstructing his vision. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, getting wetter and wetter from the ground and the rain falling on his back. Finally, someone came out to stoke the fire, a woman wearing a handkerchief over her hair.
“It’s still coming down hard. I don’t think you’ll be able to ride again for hours, sir,” she said.
A deep voice rumbled from within, saying something he couldn’t understand. A horse nickered, and suddenly the huge black horse walked out of the cave right toward him. Savaric looked up from his regrettable position on the ground and recognized her flanks in an instant.
Fiona!
CHAPTER 14
Savaric rolled his body toward the hill, desperately trying to escape the crushing hooves of the horse. He stumbled to his feet and pressed himself against the rocky face of the hillside. Fiona, as casual as a stroll on a summer’s day, walked right up to him and nuzzled his hands for the oats she was so used to finding there. She neighed softly, and then more insistently, as her search of his person turned up nothing. Savaric hushed her and pushed her away.
“Fiona, no, go away!” he hissed.
“Who’s there?” a deep voice commanded. The tall man blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the dark after the brilliance of the campfire.
Savaric pushed Fiona back in the direction of the mouth of the cave, but her neck turned and came right back to his chest. He knew that voice all too well. The sheriff stood stiffly just a few feet away from him and looked right in his direction.
“Fiona, come here. What are you doing?” He walked forward hesitantly, his foot slipping a bit on a rock. He looked down to place his next step more surely. Savaric chose that moment to drop to the ground—a desperate attempt to make himself smaller and less visible. The quick movement scattered some rocks, which clattered noisily against each other.
“Come out. I can see you,” the sheriff commanded.
Savaric dropped his head into his hands.
“There’s no use trying to hide there.”
Savaric slowly rose to his feet.
“Get away from my horse.”
“Your horse won’t get away from me,” Savaric replied.
The sheriff reached forward and pulled on the halter, forcing Fiona away from Savaric.
He peered around the horse and roughly reached over to Savaric’s cloak, dragging him closer to the fire. Savaric’s toes scraped across the ground.
“You! Stable boy! Are you trying to steal my horse?”
The Secret Key of Pythagorum Page 9