by B J Hanlon
“Then why do you sail with him… with pirates?”
“No wheres else to go,” Ginnis said looking at the ale in his mug. He tilted it back and let the drink slosh into his throat. “I do not want to talks about this. I’ll help you find them, save your girl.”
“Thanks.”
After a few more minutes, more for Edin to rest his weary legs than anything else, they left with burlap sacks filed with food, water, and three blankets. Arianne would need one.
“More jungle…” Edin muttered as they started out down the roughly hewn trail. The trees were different and the air seemed heavy, making breathing difficult.
Edin was pouring sweat and tied a shredded part of his pant leg around his head to keep it out. That was why they wore bandanas, Edin thought.
A half hour passed and they had drank more than half a skin of water. Edin kept the pace quick. The pirates had a day’s head start according to the lad.
Ginnis told them that much of the crew watched Edin get slammed and struck by the river and disappear beneath the torrent. What happened to him after, they didn’t know.
But after, another group of pirates cornered Arianne in a cave. She used her powers to push their boat that was a hundred yards off shore into a rocky shoal.
Edin laughed when Ginnis told him how frightened the crew members were.
“Pirates are superstitious bunch. Some say it was gods, others dematians but those things ain’t real…”
Edin said nothing. “What happened?”
“Me uncle got her to come out, said they had yous… and yous was alive.”
“They didn’t though?”
“He lied… remember, he’s a pirate that’s what they do.”
“Like a politician...”
Ginnis nodded.
They walked for a few more hours until he couldn’t. He was nodding off and nearly falling at every step. They passed a campsite in the early evening and pushed on well past nightfall, the small ethereal ball in his hand lighting their way.
Insects buzzed his head and bit him between wild snorts, angry growls, and hisses. Edin tried to ignore them, but Ginnis was looking around at every sound.
“You’ll make yourself dizzy,” Edin huffed.
Ginnis looked back at him. “You and her…” Ginnis said, “yous together?”
He remembered the kiss but said. “No.”
Well after midnight, they stopped in a small clearing a couple of yards from the trail. They grabbed wood and set it for a fire. “I don’t have me a sparkstone.”
Edin shrugged; yes, the wood felt wet and the air sodden with moisture, but he could also feel the static. The tinge of electrical current surfing through the air. Lightning had started fires in the Darkener Forest before…
Edin sat in front of the pile of wood and concentrated, he found the particles in the air. They were surprisingly strong. Like the constant feeling of a storm before it hits.
A crack and suddenly he felt a warmth in front of him. The wet wood was snapping as the fire roared to life.
“Woah,” Ginnis said, “how do yous do that?”
Edin grinned but his head lolled back. “Focus and concentration,” he said as and closed his eyes. “It’s the talent.”
Ginnis sighed. “I wish I had a talent. I’m barely good enough for me own uncle’s cabin boy.”
“That ain’t true,” Edin said not knowing if it were actually true or not. “We all have those thoughts of doubt…”
Edin certainly did at points and others would answer the way he just did. They’d offer caring looks and possibly even a genuine smile though servants would scoff, call him stupid.
‘What did he have to feel worthless about, he was wealthy, he had things… what did the rest matter?’
The one thing that gnawed at him growing up, the thing that made him feel less than what he was… he was a bastard and worse, he was fatherless. Or so he thought. If his father truly was Uncle Rihkar... Now he had a face… well more of a shape. The face was fuzzy, like a name on the tip of his tongue that he just couldn’t place.
Ginnis brought him back. “It is, if he wasn’t me uncle, he would’ve thrown me overboard months ago. He done told me that.”
“Why do you put up with that?”
“He’s me uncle. Where else do I go? I’m fifteen, I got no talent, no skills. I was apprenticing to do some blacksmithing but then my pops died. Mum couldn’t afford the apprenticeship.”
“Were you any good?” Edin said opening his eyes just a bit.
Ginnis nodded looking at a twig the size of his hand. “They say I was a natural. That’s why me thinks uncle took me on.”
“Sorry.”
“You ain’t got nothing to be sorry bout. You didn’t kill me… yet.”
Edin grinned. “I won’t.”
“You telling me the truth?”
“Long as you don’t kill me,” Edin said and leaned back. “I had people telling me what I can and can’t be all my life. Turns out, no matter what they thought, I was always destined to be this. An abomination.”
Ginnis began digging the twig into the dirt drawing objects. “That ain’t true.”
Edin raised an eyebrow.
“I ain’t afraid of being round you. I ain’t believing the gods will strike me down for being in your company.” Ginnis took a drink from his waterskin and started drawing in the earth again. “What they say… at least the priests in this land ain’t much in my opinion.”
“What do you mean?”
“Where I’m from, I meet people from all over. I met some peoples who believe that magi are evil… others that magi are sent by the gods. Don’t think much bout neither those ideas.”
“What do you think?”
“They is somewhere in between you know. Like a catfish sandwich. A bit of fish in the center of two pieces of bread.”
Edin chuckled.
“I heard a man preach in Alestow, a Vestion priest I think… he says ya’ll okay. I just know takin’ a side could get me dead.”
Edin was walking next to her down a trail… a beautifully lit trail that opened to a hilltop with a grand view of the surrounding land. Edin looked over and squeezed Arianne’s hand. She looked back, the light in her gray-green eyes dancing like a fire in a breeze. She smiled… for only a moment and then slowly a frown.
The light dimmed and her face began to fade. Edin tried squeezing her hand again and found it was gone…
She was gone. “Arianne!” He shouted. “Where…”
His eyes shot open and he knew instantly where he was and what he had been doing. He’d fallen asleep.
Ginnis laid across the nearly dead fire from him. His eyes were closed and he had a goofy smile on his face and his hand in his pants.
“Ginnis!” Edin yelled. “Wake up.”
The morning sun didn’t seem anywhere near to rising but the amount of sleep they had didn’t matter.
“Huh?” Ginnis said his eyes fluttering open.
Edin was already at his feet. Grent told him sleep was most important to a warrior even though the man was a terrin and rarely slept. But if he had the chance to save Dephina, Edin doubted he would care about sleep.
Edin shook the thought of his dead friends from his head. He threw his sack around his shoulder and adjusted the cutlass on his belt. “We’re going now.”
“Okay...” Ginnis drawled and wiped his eyes. The kid was to his feet grabbing the gear and throwing dirt over the fire a moment later. “You lead.”
Edin pressed forward down the barely beaten track. Footprints were scattered in the ground. The pirates weren’t moving fast. He stepped on decapitated branches and twigs that had been sliced from their bodies at some point during the previous day. Every step, he felt the anticipation of seeing her… and them around the next bend.
Dawn began to break and an orange glow began to trickle through the leaves. Sweat pounded down and his body cried for rest.
A few hours later, at least it felt that
way, Ginnis spoke up. “Master magus?”
“Edin, call me Edin.”
“I can’t keep going.”
“We must,” Edin spoke but could barely understand his own words.
“Please, Magus Edin please… just fifteen minutes.”
His legs burned and he had the desire to stop and lie down with no need of ever rising again. His head nodded before he actually agreed to stop.
“Oh gods I need this,” Ginnis sighed.
Edin flopped next to a large rough bark tree. Above him he heard a squeaking howl of some sort of animal. His eyes closed.
“Fifteen,” Edin said.
Ginnis yawned.
A chill ran through him. Edin reached an arm out to pull Arianne back, get her warmth. Nothing was there. A low growl sent a shiver up his spine.
“Arianne,” Edin said. Looking around he saw it was almost pitch black. Ginnis was a yard away leaning on a rock. The kid groaned and rolled over. Edin’s memory came back again.
“Damn blotard!” Edin screamed. There was a sudden silence in the forest. Then he heard the noises again.
He pushed himself to his feet and nudged Ginnis. “Wake boy, we gotta go,” Edin said.
How long did they sleep? He wracked his brain; did he dream about her?
His dreams were a blank scroll.
“Yes,” Ginnis said yawning and sitting up.
The leaves rustled to the left of Ginnis. It caught his attention and Edin glanced over to see eyes. Yellow, goldish eyes. They were bright and menacing and for a moment, his breathing stopped.
Then a long dark shadow leapt off a branch. Edin saw it in nearly slow motion as a giant paw struck Ginnis in the head. In equally slow motion, the kid spun and fell not bracing himself as he dropped into bush.
“Ginnis!” Edin yelled drawing the cutlass. But whatever it was disappeared into the bushes across the path.
The jungle went silent again.
Edin gaped into the darkness. His heart pumped louder than he could think. He remembered the beast in the vale. It had yellow eyes but was a snake… this was like the crillio.
Nothing was around him, no sounds, no breeze… he was alone. He felt the hair on his neck stand. Was something watching him? He answered himself. Of course, you idiot.
Edin slid his eyes through the darkness. Waiting for the slightest sound. Something moved off to his left. Edin shut his eyes and summoned a bright ethereal light. He heard a hiss and spun slashing his sword blindly.
He felt it catch something soft and an angry but pained roar rumbled through his body and the woods.
Edin looked and got a quick glimpse of a large yellow feline with black spots fleeing into the jungle. It wasn’t a crillio. A trail of blood dotted the path it took.
Edin spun, the white light digging into the jungle around them.
“Ginnis,” Edin said rushing to the kid. The boy was lying on his side facing away from Edin. He grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to his back.
A soft moan came from him. There were three scratches across his face, but none looked deep though they would leave scars.
Edin poured water into the kid’s mouth and some over his wounds. He’d have to clean them… or wait until they find Arianne to do it. He was not comfortable with taking care of injuries.
“Feels like I was hit by a cudgel.”
“Can you stand?”
The kid tried to stand, but instantly fell back.
Edin sighed, he needed to get Arianne. She was more important than this kid… but he couldn’t just leave him in the jungle. Edin drank from the waterskin and looked in the direction the pirates were heading. How far ahead of him were they? Did they make it to Alestow yet?
He closed his eyes and wished he could tell her he was coming... tell her he was alive.
The energy of the natural world floated around him. Bits of it swirled, others felt static almost like snow held motionless mid fall.
Nothing came to him.
Edin looked down at Ginnis, the kid was wiping his face with his shirt. Edin felt the breeze on his shins. With one trouser leg already gone, he figured he’d make it more uniform. Edin took the cutlass and cut off the bottom of the second one and wrapped it around half of Ginnis’ face.
“I’m not gonna lose the eye?” His voice quivered.
“Don’t think so, though you need to get the wound cleaned or you could get sick. The girl is the only one I know who can do it.”
Ginnis started to stand again using a small tree to help him up. “Let’s go then.”
“You sure?”
Ginnis nodded. They marched through the night. The temperature seemed dropped but he could still taste the humidity in the air.
Edin had figured they were making better time than the pirates because they weren’t breaking the trail, but as the night wore on, his hopes of catching them diminished.
Birds and other animals began their morning calls as dawn approached. He could already feel the temperature rising. Ginnis was quiet through the night except for a few groans and grunts.
Just after dawn, he spotted a clearing framed by thick branches. Open land. It looked almost like rows of plants. Waist high stalks of something.
Edin clenched his jaw. They left the jungle to the farmland and saw no one. No farmers, no work beasts… but there was a trail of footsteps in the brown soil.
They headed south along the edge of the field as far as he could see. The dirt was hard, so it was impossible to guess how old they were.
Edin adjusted his sack and started to follow the trail. It seemed the pirates walked side by side now, he kept looking for a smaller shoe print that would be a sign of Arianne. He didn’t find one.
Their footsteps crunched the dirt on the ground as they quickened their pace. As the first couple of hours passed, he couldn’t see a sign of the pirates.
Behind him, Ginnis was breathing heavily and beginning to slow. Edin stopped. “Come on, I need to find her.”
“You ain’t need me,” Ginnis said.
“How else will I find her?”
“Captain does the Blazing Tortoise. The owner has a cellar in the kitchen… it’s where he’ll store… people. If he has ‘er, he’d stick her there.”
Edin nodded and pulled a few coins from his purse. The only thing that remained from the fight with the river. “Here.”
“You don’t gotta.”
“It’s for guiding me,” Edin said. “Get yourself a healer when you get into town.”
Ginnis nodded. “Sorry ‘bout me uncle.”
Edin was jogging when the walls began to rise beyond a hilltop. Towers poked above the ramparts, four of them like fingers reaching to the sky.
Beyond there were larger buildings, a castle with much grander towers further back that seemed to backstop most of the city. To the west of him, Edin saw staggered lines of people. Travelers probably using a road… which was something he probably should be doing.
What if the pirates didn’t get in though? What if they were somewhere out here or hiding in the jungle…
Edin stayed between the jungle and the farms following the barest of footsteps.
It was just about noon when he made it to a manicured grassland about a hundred yards from the wall. The jungle abruptly ended and there were clear signs this was done by man.
There was no cover between the forest and the city. Difficult for attackers to sneak up on the walls though Alestow hadn’t been attacked in a thousand years.
He lost the trail at the edge of the grass. Edin cut across the land to the open gate. He was dirty and was certain he smelled, but at this point, he couldn’t be sure. His clothes were torn and he carried a cutlass.
Anyone who happened to look at him gave him a look of horror or disgust.
The guards glared as he made his way through the gate. He heard a sneer from one of them followed by “throw him in jail.”
Edin’s heartbeat quickened. He kept his head down walking beneath a sharp portcullis an
d huge stone arch. The walls were at least ten feet thick made of a whitish gray stone. On the walls, he saw bowmen, a few were actually watching the crowd, others were more or less lounging.
He was inside. Now, he just needed to find her. Edin paused and looked around, he felt someone shove him and he stumbled slightly forward. A word was said but he didn’t catch it. Edin was surrounded by people and tall buildings. But ahead of him, he could see the ocean far in the distance. The road sloped toward the sea where ships were moored, their masts drawn up as they sat silent in the lapping waves.
Somewhere beyond them was a reef that made this a natural harbor.
Edin began heading down road. The white castle loomed over the city at least a mile south. Edin knew the city spanned a peninsula with a foot in the Crimson Ocean to the east and the Mirasa Sea to the south. He guessed the castle was on the Mirasa.
Through a few side streets, he could see another wall. It didn’t only surround the castle, there were many buildings inside. One glimpse showed a gate with a man allowing some people entry but denying others. A second city for the nobles Edin guessed.
He ignored the rich part of town. The pirates wouldn’t be there.
Back in the real city, the roofs were flat and the buildings more or less uniform. They headed toward the sea like steps for a stone giant. The white washed buildings nearly all had deep chestnut shutters and doors.
The smell of sweets baking in a shop gave him a moment’s pause. He was hungry, starving actually. He had food in the pack but that really wasn’t as appetizing. He thought of Arianne thought and Edin moved on.
Laundry hung like tired workmen from windows above the street, people bustled in and out of the shops. A white inn appeared to his right. The sign said ‘Palace Estates’ in large letters. But then above in much smaller letters he read, ‘Not Your Mother’s.’
On a balcony over the entrance, a scantily clad woman stood twisting her auburn hair in the sunshine yelling at the crowd as if she were a saleswoman trying to hawk her wares. She wore a see-through dress that showed a pink brassiere many times too small.
Those was her goods, he thought and when she caught him staring, he lowered his eyes. Edin suddenly felt guilty.