Red Prince

by Jared Garrett

  He jolted awake, a warm hand on his chest. Stars still filled the black sky, but a dark shape loomed just above his face. His heart hammered painfully against his chest bone, his breath coming fast. But he knew that soft, spicy scent and knew the exact warmth of Simra’s hand.

  “You were tossing and making noises,” Simra said. “Are you okay?”

  Lakhoni swallowed, willing his heart to slow. Through gritted teeth, his hands slowly unclenching and releasing his woven sleeping mat, he let out a breath. “Yes. I’m fine.”

  “A bad dream?”

  He nodded. “An old memory.”

  Simra’s hand slid up his chest to his cheek, sending warm tingles all through Lakhoni’s body. “The sacrifice in the cavern?”

  How could she know that? Lakhoni had told Simra everything, but how could she see into his heart and mind so well? He nodded. His heart was finally slowing as the dream faded.

  “I’m sorry.” Simra leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. She lowered herself next to him, warming his side. “Maybe I can keep the dreams away.”

  Lakhoni’s heart pounded again, but for a much different reason. His head spun with the sensation of her lips on his forehead, her hand holding his, and her body lying next to him. He scooted to his left a little to give her more room on the narrow sleeping mat. She wriggled closer and pressed against him again. Her breath was a regular warm caress across his chest and neck. He would not be able to sleep. So yes, Simra was going to keep the dreams away. But how could he possibly sleep with her perfect warmth so close and her scent filling him so completely? The thumb of her hand that held his caressed the back of his hand gently, sending comfort and peace through him. This was how life would be. This was everything.

  The sun peeking over the mountain ridges to the east speared through Lakhoni’s eyelids. Waking up with Simra still pressed against his side made Lakhoni wish he could sleep forever, or at least lie there unmoving for much longer. She stirred and lifted her head and gave Lakhoni a sleepy smile. He felt as if his chest would break open at her face so close, her sleep-messed hair falling all around it. “No more bad dreams?” Her voice was gruff from sleep.

  “No.” He returned her smile, wishing this was a different time, that their betrothal was complete and they were wed. Regretfully, Lakhoni pushed himself to a sitting position and stretched his back. “Thank you.”

  Simra smiled again and pushed to her knees. “You’re welcome.”

  Then everyone was awake and the small, simple camp was packed and they began their journey again.

  “What are we looking for now?” Hilana asked.

  “The Betrayers,” Lamorun answered.

  “Where do we think they are?” Hilana asked, sounding exasperated. And tired.

  Lakhoni squinted through the thin morning haze and pointed at the fissure that had grown steadily closer. From far away, he’d thought the earth around it and stretching beyond it was all darker grass and rocks, but now that they had covered so much ground, the dark colors had become dark green, thick trees. “I say we see what’s there.”

  “Yes,” Alronna agreed.

  “Dreams again?” Simra asked.

  “No,” Alronna said. “But it’s west of those crazy people who live in the hills back there. So it makes sense to me.”

  After a light meal of dried fruits and hard cheese eaten while walking, they lapsed into silence, making good time toward the fissure. The fissure which was resolving into more of a canyon with a sharp top edge.

  “Is that a river?” Hilana pointed to the south.

  Lakhoni squinted but only saw the early light of the day painting the tall grass and hills and rocks with pale gold.

  “Maybe,” Alronna said. She looked up at the cloudless sky. “Do you think there could be something to those people’s dance?”

  Simra straightened and glared at Alronna. “You mean dancing themselves to death as some kind of honorable sacrifice to convince a servant goddess to send rain?”

  “Well, no,” Alronna said. “Not that.” She chewed on a piece of grass and adjusted the strap holding the Sword to her belt. “But they’re right. I can’t remember the last time it rained.” She frowned at everyone in the group. “Can you?”

  Lakhoni nodded. “I thought about that last night. I can’t remember any rain in the last few months.”

  “Because a goddess is angry?” Simra asked, tugging at the pouches on her belt, the lines of her face hard.

  “I’m not saying that.” Lakhoni put his hands up. “But there hasn’t been rain.”

  “The question is why,” Hilana said.

  “And the answer is because it hasn’t rained.” Lamorun picked a rock up and threw it hard. “It’s not a difficult thing.”

  “But what causes rain?” Hilana asked. “Who’s to say it isn’t a goddess that wants people to die from dancing?”

  Nobody had an answer for that, although after a moment, Simra muttered, “That’s a terrible goddess.”

  “Also, seasons come and go.” Lamorun turned and walked backward, facing the group. “Sometimes it is dry and sometimes it is wet.” He faced forward again. “I believe in the Great Spirit. I believe our First Fathers were safely led across the waters. But after pleading every night for ten years for the Great Spirit to free me from my captivity, I came to learn that prayer is good but being the answer to the prayer is better. I had to free myself.”

  “With our help,” Alronna said.

  “All of our help,” Hilana added.

  Lakhoni glanced down at his right side—the one that had taken the worst of halkeen blades and now strange boar tusks. Maybe he should change his fighting stance so his left side got it next time. “The rain will come when it comes.” He let his palms lightly brush the soft, cottony tops of the tall grass as they walked. “Let’s just track down the Rod, or Staff, and stop Gadnar.”

  “They called it the Rod,” Alronna said, after another quiet mile of steady progress toward the canyon. Lakhoni estimated they had to be within a mile of the closest edge. “Back in the hills.”

  “The picture in Aboa’s house made it look a little different from a simple rod,” Simra said. “Did you see how the top got a little wider?”

  “I saw that.” Lakhoni thought back. “Couldn’t it just be a trick of the light, or the drawing was a little rough anyway? Why would the Rod be wider at the top?”

  “I don’t know.” Simra lapsed into silence.

  “Maybe one day we won’t have to walk across the entire land,” Hilana said. Everybody burst out laughing.

  As they approached the edge of the deep canyon, Lakhoni realized that Hilana had been right. Off a ways to the south, a ribbon of glistening water wound its way to the canyon. They pressed on and as the sun passed the middle of the sky, they came to rocky areas and trees that rimmed the edge of the canyon. Not long later, walking on mostly dark gray rock and skirting copses of stumpy trees, they came to the edge of the canyon.

  It had to be almost a mile wide and several miles long, running east to west. The river made a frothy, white waterfall that cascaded into a long, blue river at the bottom of the canyon. Trees and uneven rock formations rimmed the entire thing, as far as Lakhoni saw.

  “Do we think the betrayers took the Rod and moved into here?” Alronna peered over the edge. “It must be five hundred paces deep. Maybe more.”

  “I see no way to descend into it,” Lamorun said.

  Hilana lowered herself to her stomach and put her forearms and head over the edge, scrutinizing the parts of the canyon that she could see. “And even if you could get down there, the canyon floor is giant boulders and cracks and stumpy trees.” She craned her head around to address the group. “Nowhere to live down there.”

  Frustration filled Lakhoni. This was too slow. They should have gotten horses from Lukozilxa, although they would have had to leave them behind at the thick, damp forest they had cut through. “Let’s follow it. It must have been around when the Betrayers came t
his way, so we can try to do what they did.”

  “I’ve heard worse plans,” Alronna said. She quirked a smile at Lakhoni. “In fact, I’ve heard worse plans from you.”

  Lakhoni chuckled, remembering finding her in the slave bunker in Zyronilxa. “My plan worked, remember? Got you out.”

  “You didn’t even rescue me!” Alronna laughed. “Ree had to do it and she’s half your size.”

  Lakhoni had to concede the point. “But it still worked.”

  “Let’s move. We still have half a day of light left.” Hilana scooted back from the canyon’s edge. As they started out again, she looked to Alronna. “I saw where that animal kept you. It was a good thing your cousin freed all of those slaves, or I would have had words with her.”

  “Ree’s a good person,” Alronna said. “Even if she did make me stack rocks for two weeks.”

  “She knows slavery is evil,” Lakhoni said. “Can you imagine how much will change in Zyronilxa with Ree on the temple throne?”

  Lamorun nodded, a serious thought turning his lips downward in a grimace. “Much needed changing. Anything that will make our people less warlike will be for the good.”

  Hilana put her hands out. “Stop!”

  The urgency in her voice raised Lakhoni’s neck hairs. “What?”

  She crouched. “Look there.” Her voice was a harsh whisper.

  Lakhoni didn’t move and looked to where she was pointing. All he saw was craggy rocks that lined the edge of the canyon thirty paces away. Nothing moved.

  “I see nothing,” Lamorun said. “Have you lost what little mind you had?”

  Hilana snorted and threw a glare at Lamorun. “No, club leg. Come here.” She motioned for him to crouch near him.

  He complied. She pointed and Lamorun rolled backward from his crouch to stand again. “Now that is interesting.”

  Lakhoni, Alronna, and Simra crouched to Hilana’s sides. “What are we looking at?” Alronna sounded mildly irritated.

  “See those three boulders?” Hilana used both hands to point.

  Lakhoni nodded. “Yes. They’re big boulders—or something that hasn’t fallen into the canyon yet.”

  “There’s a space between the two on the right and the one closer to the edge.” Lamorun rested his arm on Lakhoni’s head, his fingers all directing Lakhoni where to look. “The space is unusual looking. Doesn’t look natural.”

  “Oh, I see it,” Simra said.

  “I see it, but why are we wasting time?” Alronna stood and strode toward the boulders.

  “I still don’t,” Lakhoni said, but Simra gently pushed his head so it was tilting to the left. “Oh!” He couldn’t figure out why from this distance, but something looked off about the space Hilana had spotted.

  They all fell in behind Alronna and hurried to the odd-looking rock formation.

  “It looks like this was mud that a giant drew a tree trunk through,” Lakhoni said. It wasn’t three boulders or even separate rocks. It was just a big, craggy rock formation at the edge of the canyon, but there was a narrow path cut right through it. The only reason Hilana had spotted it was because the path’s color was a slight shade darker than the rock it had been cut through.

  It wasn’t split, as if one part had cracked off of the other. This was smooth and clean, clearly carved by human hands. “Where do you think it leads?” Hilana asked.

  Lamorun barked a loud laugh and stepped down onto the path, moving smoothly down the way and almost instantly out of sight.

  Lakhoni glanced at the women and shrugged. “Alronna, take up the back?”

  Alronna nodded and Lakhoni followed Simra, with Hilana right behind him. The path angled steeply down. It had been cut through heavy, dark stone that didn’t feel at all like the rock around Lakhoni’s home. This felt incredibly smooth to the touch, almost soft, although there was no give to it.

  They dropped with the path as it curved sharply to the right, into the face of the canyon. Two tall stone walls rose up above them, unbroken and solid, blocking out almost all the light. The temperature was noticeably cooler in the deep stone shade. Then there were no longer two walls as the path became a hole drilled through solid rock. A tunnel that seemed to be leading them deep into the cliff face of the canyon.

  The tunnel angled back to the left in an impossibly tight curve that Lakhoni thought should have brought them right out to the cliff face and dropped them into the canyon’s abyss. It also continued to drop steadily. “Where is this taking us?”

  “I’ve lost all sense of direction in here,” Lamorun said. It didn’t help that the light was fading with each step they took down the tunnel.

  “This is incredible,” Simra said. She ran her hands along the tunnel walls as they descended. “How could any human have done this?”

  “It’s as if they had some kind of stone carving tool,” Hilana said, awe in her voice. “But it must have taken years. Generations!”

  Their voices echoed around the passageway as if seeking some way out.

  “Lakhoni,” Alronna said from behind Hilana who still followed on Lakhoni’s heels.

  “What is it?” The fading light was making Lakhoni nervous, but more than that, something was settling into his throat. Sour dread. Where was this tunnel taking them?

  “I think we should turn around.” Alronna spoke softly, but her voice easily carried to Lakhoni’s ears.

  “Why?” Hilana asked. “This was obviously done by people. We’re looking for people, remember?”

  “I can’t say.” Alronna grew silent for a moment. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “About what?” Lakhoni asked. How was Alronna feeling it too? And why wasn’t anyone else? He took slow, calming breaths, willing the tightness trying to settle in his chest to loosen and depart. This was stone. Simply rock.

  “I don’t know, but it feels like there’s something bad ahead.” Alronna sounded confused at the words coming from her own mouth. She had become a fierce and brash warrior after her captivity, bolder than anyone Lakhoni had ever known. But during this journey, with her dreams somewhat leading the way, she had grown quieter. More thoughtful. Still, the hesitation she was clearly feeling sounded strange coming from her.

  “Lamorun!” Lakhoni called ahead. Too loudly. His voice bounced and echoed. Breathe, Lakhoni thought. Center. He focused on his feet on the solid, cool stone. His legs extending upward. His body, strong and recovered. His hands on the stone walls.

  “Brother, what is it?” Lamorun answered.

  “Be careful. I think we should make some light.” Lakhoni found his center, almost snapping into it with the same sensation as a dagger sliding home in its sheath. His mind cleared and he breathed calmly.

  “No need,” Lamorun said. “There’s light ahead.”

  “How far?” Simra and Lamorun ahead of her were simply dark shapes. Lakhoni glanced over a shoulder. Hilana and Alronna blended completely into the darkness behind him, which gave him a moment of pause. They were still there. No need for worry.

  “Hard to say,” came Lamorun’s reply.

  “Alronna and I are…” Lakhoni trailed off, uncertain of how to describe what he was feeling. “Nervous? It feels like something dark is ahead.”

  As Lamorun started moving forward again, the heavy shape of his cudgel swung up and down. “Then I will be ready for whatever greets us.”

  “Nervous?” Simra asked. “What do you mean?” She kept pace with Lamorun, leaning back like everyone else to avoid letting the steep slope carry her down too fast.

  Lakhoni grimaced, although he knew she couldn’t see him. “I don’t know.” But then he realized he had felt something very similar. Not long before. “It feels a lot like when that strange boar’s red eyes looked at me.”

  “That… That’s not good,” Simra said.

  “Which is what I’m saying,” Lakhoni said.

  “If you two could stop flirting, we might all be able to listen for any danger ahead of us,” Hilana said.

  “
Flirting?” Simra muffled her laughter. “We’re betrothed, Hilana. We’re far beyond flirting.”

  “We will be quiet,” Lakhoni said. He did not add “future sister” although he was sorely tempted to. There was no mistaking the affection Lamorun and Hilana shared with their constant jabs at each other. The thought gave him pause. Simra would be his wife. Hopefully before long. And Hilana was surely destined to wed Lamorun. This was not a group of siblings and friends—this was his family. All of his family, save for Ree in Zyronilxa.

  Soon Lakhoni only heard footsteps, and those were only Simra’s and Alronna’s. As well as Ree had trained and worked with Alronna, his sister had never mastered the art of walking silently. Hilana walked like a person who had grown up in a village surrounded by forest. And Lamorun walked like a warrior, the balls of his feet striking the ground first followed by the rest of his feet. Like a jaguar. Whenever Lakhoni stood tall and craned to see beyond Lamorun, he caught sight of the growing spot of light ahead and still far down the sloping tunnel. The dot slowly became a circle the size of a head, then finally it was big enough that its light was enough that he could make out the details of Simra and Lamorun ahead of him.

  Lamorun was the first to the light and he paused for a moment, then stepped out of the tunnel, disappearing from sight. Simra and Lakhoni were right behind him, and after a moment to let their eyes adjust, they stepped out onto rocky terrain dotted with hardy green trees, wide bladed grass, tall plants that had fuzzy tops, and springs of water everywhere. Water trickled over jagged, hard-edged rocks that looked like they had been spread by giant hands after being broken off mountains. Lakhoni looked up, stunned to see the walls of the canyon stretching far above. The scent of moisture and wet rocks filled his nostrils. The water from the springs looked clear and clean, making him thirsty.

  “How?” Hilana was the first to ask. “How has that tunnel carried us all the way to the canyon floor?”

  Lakhoni’s family all exchanged stunned expressions. “It was steep, but I didn’t realize how steep it was.” Lakhoni turned in a circle, feeling his mouth drop open as he focused on the wall on the far side of the canyon. “Great Spirit.” The dread he’d felt earlier in the tunnel returned full force, but he fought it down as he reached for his center.