by Narro, B. T.
Alabell moved far from the opening and pressed herself against the wall. Basen went to her. She’d told him the full story of her escape from the castle, including her slide down the rope of bed sheets. The possibility of another dangerous descent must’ve terrified her.
“I’ll help you,” Basen soothed.
“How?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
She laughed.
“You can go right after me,” he suggested. “And I’ll tell you where to put your hands and feet if you encounter trouble.”
“Thank you.”
They walked back to listen to Jackrie talking with Cleve and Annah as the three of them tried to figure out where they were. Basen squeezed by them for a better look at the land. He was no experienced traveler, but anyone could recognize the desert of Kilmar. It was straight ahead of them, perhaps a hundred miles out. In between was a river that ran to the ocean to their left.
Annah pointed far in the distance, beyond the desert and all the way to the mountains on the other side of the continent. “I think those are the Fjallejon Mountains, which means we’re somewhere along the eastern coast. That should mean…” She glanced down at the land around them. “There, look. It’s the old Kreppen encampment.”
Basen leaned out from the opening. The stretch of dry and broken land seemed to be a day’s walk away. A low wall enclosed the old camp. Some huts still remained. Basen looked through the party’s shared spyglass and noticed each one seemed to be ripped if not overturned.
“Are we certain it’s abandoned?” Basen asked.
“The Krepps who used to live there would not stay after losing the war.” Annah sounded certain. “It would cause them too much shame.”
“Come on.” Cleve turned around and began to climb.
Jackrie grabbed his arm. “Wait. I still haven’t figured out where we’re going.”
“You’ll have time to think while we climb down. We have to get off this mountain anyway.”
“The Dajrik Mountains,” Alabell murmured, then seemed surprised as everyone looked at her. “That’s where we are.”
Basen swallowed a lump in his throat. No one had ventured into the Dajrik Mountains, seen a dajrik, and returned to tell the tale. He wondered if any others had ended up at this very spot, ready to climb down, only to fall to their deaths.
When the moment of tension passed, Jackrie agreed with Cleve that they needed to descend.
“Is anyone scared?” Annah asked.
It seemed like a pointless question to Basen. “Aren’t we all?”
Everyone nodded except Cleve.
“I mean is anyone crippled by their fear?” Annah specified.
Alabell shyly raised her hand. Annah touched her shoulder, and Alabell’s tense face relaxed.
“Is that better?” Annah asked.
“Much. Thank you.”
“Anyone else?” Annah asked. “Basen?”
He stepped away. “I like my fear. I trust myself more when I have an increased pulse.”
He and Cleve went first. Being the heaviest, they could test the rocks before the women followed.
Basen hadn’t climbed anything since he was a child, but he and his friends used to pretend they were explorers as they scaled the mountainous hills around Tenred. A few times he’d climbed up high enough to crack his head open if he were to fall, but he’d cared more about boasting rights than the pride of conquering the dangerous slopes.
Going down had always been harder for him than going up. He used his feet to find the next foothold, only glancing down when his prodding toes found nowhere to go. He went slowly so as to guide Alabell above him.
“Your left foot next. Good. Put all your weight on it as you shift your right foot down. That’s it.”
Cleve made it to the bottom long before everyone else, then shouted directions to Annah and Jackrie when they seemed to be stuck. Fortunately, the mountain wasn’t completely vertical, making it easy to hold on.
Suddenly, Alabell slipped and screamed as she slid down. Basen braced himself and let his shoulders catch her weight. She nearly flipped over his back, but his hand shot up and grabbed her shirt. He pulled her hard into the mountain, and she latched on to the rocks. But with her rear pressing against his head, he had too much of her weight on his neck.
“Can you pull yourself up?” he asked, his voice strained.
She seemed too scared to move. Basen couldn’t look up to give her any guidance.
“Slide down to my shoulder,” he grunted out.
She didn’t move, just made a few frightened murmurs.
“Alabell!” Cleve shouted. “Get your feet on something so you can take your weight back.”
“There’s nothing,” she muttered fearfully, not loud enough for Cleve to hear. “Don’t drop me, Basen, I’m looking.”
He could feel his hands slipping and squeezed harder.
Alabell shifted as Basen closed his eyes and tried to remain strong. He could feel her testing her weight as she reached up.
She pulled a rock out of the mountain wall and screamed. It struck Basen in the head, but his adrenaline kept both of them from falling as he took all of her weight onto his shoulder with one arm coming up to support her back. She quickly dug her hands into dents that certainly weren’t deep enough for her to really grab, and even if they were, they were too close to Basen’s now bloody head. She was clearly panicking, and Basen began to feel himself joining her.
“Hold on!” Cleve shouted. “I’m coming.”
But his voice sounded too far away. “Alabell, I don’t think I can hold on long enough,” Basen told her. “You need to find some way of getting your feet back onto the mountain.” She’d adjusted to sit mostly on his left shoulder, her legs trapped between the mountain and his chest. There were two perfect footholds nearby, but unfortunately they were already in use by Basen’s feet. He didn’t see how he could climb down so she could get her feet in them. In fact, she couldn’t get her feet anywhere with them pressed between him and the mountain.
“You need to pull your feet out,” he told her.
“I can’t. There’s nothing to grab onto. Go down to give me room.”
“I can’t.” He didn’t have the strength to explain that his feet were secure where they were, but as soon as he moved one of them, he wouldn’t be able to support her weight anymore.
His shoulder felt as if it was on fire, his fingers burning as well. “Alabell, I can’t hold on much longer.”
She strained with a grunt, and he felt some of her weight come off. But then one of her hands slipped. Basen’s heart caught in his throat and she toppled backward. He caught her legs by pinching his elbow toward his chest, and somehow she stopped falling. Though something else had to have caught her, for he didn’t feel as much weight as he should’ve.
With Alabell upside down and her back pressed against his, his face cut into the mountainside.
Alabell continued to scream until Cleve’s voice rang out from beside Basen. “Don’t let her go. I have her head and shoulders.”
“All right, but now what?” Basen had no idea how good a grip Cleve had on her, but he doubted that even the impressively strong warrior could hold her completely.
“I don’t know,” Cleve admitted.
“We’re here.” It was Jackrie. “Annah, take one of her arms. That’s it. Now Cleve and Annah, shift her to the right.”
Basen could feel them moving Alabell sideways against his back. He slowly let go of her leg as she turned back upright, her hands now on his shoulders.
“Can you hold on just a little longer?” Jackrie asked him. “Alabell needs to climb down you, and then Cleve.”
“Yes, just hurry, Alabell.”
She made her way down, her hands shifting from his shoulders to his hips. Then suddenly her weight was off him.
He waited a moment, then looked down. Cleve was below him, looking down and giving Alabell directions on where to put her hands and feet.
Basen’s limbs were numb yet shaking. He might be able to drop from here and only break a leg. He considered it for a moment, but then decided that he would drop when he no longer could hold on, which certainly would happen soon.
He descended diagonally so he could pass Cleve and Alabell. He couldn’t risk testing footholds but instead put his full weight on his outstretched legs one at a time, moving as quickly as possible.
Then one of the rocks came loose below him. He tried to hold himself with his hands, but it was too late. He began to fall. He took a hard bounce against a ledge on the way, losing his sense of up and down. He regained it with just enough time to get his feet beneath him.
He somehow managed to land on them, though he still fell hard onto his hands and chest. He rolled onto his side and cringed as agony filled his entire body. But at least he was on the ground and alive.
“Basen, are you all right?” they shouted down to him.
He shut his eyes, the pain too immense to speak. His breath was hot and ragged. Sweat or blood dampened his back.
Soon the rest of them had gathered around him on the dry dirt. He recognized Alabell’s touch as she put her hand on his head. It caused a sharp pain. “Where does it hurt the most?”
“Where you’re touching.”
She withdrew her hand.
He sat up, groaning. “I’m all right, I think.”
They didn’t seem to believe him, each wearing the same concerned expression.
*****
Alabell checked him for broken bones and any other injuries that might threaten his life or prevent him from walking. Eventually she deemed that he was indeed “all right.”
“I told you I’m fine,” he said and rose to his feet. His legs wobbled. She reached out to catch him, but he caught himself first.
“So he’s ready, then?” Jackrie asked.
“He is,” Alabell confirmed. “Though we will need to travel slowly because of his injured leg.” She blinked as she glanced at the open land around them. “Where are we going?”
“Well, we still need to get to Tenred.” Jackrie faced the western mountains and then tilted her head up toward the darkening sky. “We won’t get far today.”
Basen decided to sit if they weren’t ready to walk yet. “At least we’re on the northern side of the Fjallejon Mountains.”
“Jackrie,” Cleve said, “it isn’t much farther to Merejic from here.”
“And what’s there besides miles of forest?”
“Elves,” Alabell answered for him with a hint of excitement.
Jackrie frowned. “No, Alabell, they left twenty-five years ago.”
“There’s a new group there now.” Cleve spoke with unenthusiastic certainty, which seemed to be common for the big man. “Most of them are psychics as well. If they join us, we might be able to take back our cities from Tauwin.”
Basen asked, “How do you know all of this?”
“Because I was on their ship from Greenedge. They let me off at Gendock with my horse—”
“You have a horse?” Jackrie interrupted.
“Probably not anymore,” he said morosely. “It was being taken care of by Kerr’s staff, so Tauwin has it now, along with Reela’s. But her brother should still have his horse with him. He remained on the boat with the Elves, disembarking at Merejic with them.”
“He’s an Elf, right?” Alabell asked. “Reela’s half-brother?”
“Yes.” Cleve seemed surprised she would know that, but he didn’t mention it. “His name is Vithos,” he told the rest of them. “He was raised by Krepps, so he knows their language fluently. He went with the Elves in hopes of keeping the interaction between them and the Krepps in Merejic peaceful.”
Annah’s face flushed with fear. “There are Krepps there as well?”
Cleve pushed out his hands to calm her. “Yes, but they’re the Krepps who abandoned the army because they didn’t want to fight. I don’t think they’re like the others.”
“There was nothing in the Kreppen book about that,” Annah complained. She seemed confused when everyone stared at her. “No one else has read it?” She looked annoyed when nobody answered. “A Krepp’s life during the great war of Ovira. It was written by Nebre, the Krepp who translated for Tegry Hiller. Anyone? It’s famous!”
“I’ve heard of it,” Alabell offered.
Annah huffed, then continued, “Nebre believes that even the Krepps who didn’t fight in the war might attack humans on sight. They usually avoid us because we’re harder to kill, but that doesn’t stop all of them. Some look at us like they do an animal, hunting us for meat.”
“Even if most of them are like that,” Cleve said, “not all of them are. If they didn’t attack the Elves, who came to take back the homes their ancestors built in Merejic, then they probably won’t attack us.”
“Is this what happened when you went to visit them?” Alabell asked. “The Krepps moved out of Merejic without a fight?”
“I’m not sure. Reela and I never found the Elven village.” Cleve spoke quickly to head off their concerns. “But I’m confident we’ll find it this time. I already know where not to look.”
“There are stories about that forest,” Annah said. “Sights and sounds of ghosts. Many believe it’s the Elves who were slaughtered there.”
“Ridiculous,” Basen remarked. “If ghosts were real, there’d be proof.”
“Did you hear or see anything while you were there, Cleve?” Annah asked.
“I might’ve. I can’t be sure.”
Annah sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t want to go there.”
Jackrie had been silent until then. Her sigh drew everyone’s attention. “Cleve, what are the chances these psychic Elves would help us?”
“I’m fairly certain we could get at least a few of them. Many are more powerful than Annah. It’s worth the time it would take to get there, which shouldn’t be more than a couple weeks.”
“And then weeks more to get back,” Jackrie said to herself. “I don’t think it’s worth being away from the Academy for that long. Tauwin could attack soon.”
“It’ll take a couple weeks to get to Tenred, anyway,” Cleve argued. Then he looked straight at Basen. “If you could make a portal back to the Academy, then we could go straight there from the Elven village in Merejic. The Elves are more powerful than any number of men we might get from Tenred,” Cleve told Jackrie. “And we must admit to ourselves that the chances of recruiting soldiers from Tenred are slim. These men were our enemies months ago. Just because one of Kerr’s men came to lead their territory doesn’t mean they’ll listen to him when he commands them in battle.”
Jackrie regarded each of the young men and women she was responsible for, finally looking like a leader. “How much water do all of you have left?”
Collectively, they had less than one full pouch.
“Then we’d better take a trip south to the river we saw from the Dajrik Mountains.”
Basen got up and followed Jackrie silently with the rest of them. But as they walked and she offered no other words, he realized she had absolutely no idea what to do after they refilled their water skins.
“If we’re going south anyway,” Annah said, “we might as well go a little farther, past the river and into the old Kreppen encampment. There, Basen can test making a portal to the Academy to make sure it’s possible.”
Basen had told Annah and the rest of them how his portals worked, but it seemed as if she’d forgotten one important detail.
“I can only make them where bastial energy has been pulled into a cluster enough times,” he said. “Krepps don’t use bastial energy, so I doubt there will be a place in that encampment for me to cast a portal. And it’s not a small encampment, probably about the same size as the Academy. It would take days to walk around the entire thing feeling for a spot to make a portal.”
“Krepps can’t manipulate bastial energy, yes, but their Slugari leaders did.” Annah looked at the abandoned Kreppen en
campment with awe, as if it were a castle she longed to visit. “They burned Krepps with fire as punishment. Nebre says so in his book. The Krepp being punished would stand against a stone wall so the fire spell couldn’t damage the rest of the encampment if it missed. We just need to find that stone wall.”
“Even so,” Basen said, “I don’t think I could make a portal big enough for any of us without using energy absorbed by akorell metal.” He glanced back at the Dajrik Mountains. “Should’ve made one in there to test it, where there was plenty of akorell metal.” They’d been too focused on getting out quietly to worry about testing portals back to the Academy.
“And it’s about a day out of the way,” Cleve complained. “The Academy might be attacked soon, like Jackrie said. We need reinforcements as soon as possible.”
“Spending one day is worth it.” Jackrie reached into her bag and pulled out a hardened sartious block. “We need time for the akorell stone to charge completely, anyway.” She waved her hand and the sartious energy became a verdant cloud. The glowing akorell bracelet fell from its center, landing on her palm.
“Why didn’t you tell us you had it with you?” Basen asked angrily. No doubt it was the same one Alabell had brought to the Academy from the castle, then had given to Basen to keep. He hadn’t stopped thinking that it belonged to him.
“It was Terren’s decision,” Jackrie replied apologetically. “Apparently, Penny gave him the idea that you might not be able to follow my orders about when to use the energy from the stone, so it was better if you didn’t know.”
Basen scoffed. But Cleve looked him square in the eyes. “You did almost kill us both on the Academy’s wall.”
Before Basen could complain, Jackrie surprised him by handing him the bracelet. “It will only be used for portals and when I say so. Understand?”
“Don’t you at least want to see what kind of fireball I can make with this thing? I sure do.”
Jackrie held out her hand for him to give it back. He showed her his back but told her what she needed to hear.