Chaos Destiny

by Mussie Haile

Eldana and Siem swung their legs out of bed and stepped out. Tentatively, Siem reached out and cast a search spell.

  “Reiena,” the magician whispered, before visibly relaxing. “There’s nothing capable of danger in them,” she reported.

  Eldana grabbed one of the rucksacks and opened it. Then smiled as her eyes took in its contents.

  “We’re set for the perils in our journey!”

  Siem cocked her brows inquisitively.

  “Supplies, there’s a dagger, dried biscuits, dried meat, spices, salt, a can, and a robe, which probably has some spell over it...”

  Siem smiled. “Indeed. The universe finds opportunities in our present difficulties to smile at us.”

  Eldana closed the rucksack and dropped it beside the second one. “We ought to start getting ready,” she told Siem.

  The girls made sure to have a bath, not solely for the sake of cleanliness, but for the magically induced, refreshing feeling they got afterward.

  “What a way to start the day,” Eldana said when she was done.

  Soon they were fully dressed. Eldana had her hair packed and tied in a bun. She wore her rune-covered robe and her sword was strapped to her back. Siem had a quiver full of arrows strapped to her back, her retractable bow in a pouch on her belt, and an ornate dagger, which she kept hidden in her boots.

  The cock had crowed the second time when there was a knock on their door.

  “Hermon?” Siem called.

  “Unfortunately, not,” a familiar voice replied.

  “Techle?” Eldana asked.

  “Greetings,” Techle replied. “Can I come in?”

  “Oh, sure,” Eldana said, moving towards the door.

  She unlatched the door, then opened it to reveal a smiling Techle.

  “I trust you had a pleasant rest?” Techle asked, walking into the room.

  “More pleasant than we’ve had in several days,” Siem replied.

  “Good,” He looked around the room and spotted the rucksacks. “I see you’ve found the supplies you requested.”

  “Yes. Blessings on you.” Eldana replied.

  “It is not much,” Techle said “But it has the rudimentary things that you will need on your journey.”

  “Are the others ready?” Siem asked.

  “I suppose so,” Techle replied. “This place is tailored to meet the specific needs of its guests. If you need to be awake by the first light of dawn, you will be.

  “Now,” Techle’s face turned serious, “I don’t know the details about your journey, but I feel it’s a very serious one. There are horses outside, fine and strong breeds. They’ll take you wherever you want to go. I’ll advise that you keep your senses keen. Not all is as it seems in this world.”

  “Thank you, Techle,” Eldana said. “How can I ever repay you?”

  Techle smiled. “Like I said the tavern does not accrue debts. Just be safe.”

  Eldana and Siem nodded. They each picked up a rucksack, and giving Techle one final farewell glance, nodded to indicate their readiness. Techle replied with a nod of his own, and a line of light began to burn on the wall until a door frame was formed. Then the section of the wall cut out by the frame of light grew translucent until there was nothing there but the dark blue of dawn.

  Eldana and Siem exchanged looks. Then they walked through the doorway and into the silent morning.

  The morning was cold. The visible puffs of breath coming out from the nostrils of the horses were testament enough. There was a trio of men, sitting in a small circle, close to where the horses stood. The cloaks they had on rendered them unobtrusive, but they did more than that.

  “Isn’t this marvellous?” one of them asked.

  “What is, Mikko?” Hermon asked.

  “These cloaks,” Mikko replied. “I mean, it is so cold out here, yet I feel nothing.”

  “You know, the weakling is right. I do not feel a thing, not even a bite of cold,” D’rmas said.

  “Hey,” Mikko warned. “I’ve told you to quit calling me a weakling.”

  D’rmas laughed tauntingly. He had begun calling Mikko a weakling since the magician had drunk himself into a stupor last night and lost an arm wrestle to D’rmas.

  “Hermon, please remind your dear friend here that losing an arm wrestle when you are heavily drunk does not make you a weakling,” Mikko said.

  A small smile appeared on Hermon’s face. “I do not know about this, Mikko. I just want to be left out of this, whatever it is,” he said. Hermon was sure that Mikko would not see the last of D’rmas taunts unless he were to oblige the warrior to a duel.

  After a span of silence, Mikko conjured a ball of flame and let it float in their middle.

  “What’s that for?” Hermon asked.

  “I do not know,” Mikko replied. “We cannot just sit here, waiting in the dark.”

  “Of course we can, and we will,” D’rmas stated. “Your magic ball will attract the attention of unfriendlies, if it has not already.”

  “Fine,” Mikko said. With a snap of his fingers, the light went out. “How much more time do you reckon the girls are going to take?”

  “They’re women, let them be,” D’rmas admonished. “They take time putting on clothes and sitting before mirrors.”

  “Trust me,” Hermon told D’rmas. “Those women are not the kind for that, at least not with the task at hand.”

  “The task at hand...” D’rmas parroted, his voice low and his face thoughtful. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “What?” Hermon questioned.

  “I mean the plan after here. When we get out of Kleas, what next?”

  “Erm, you want the truth?” Hermon asked.

  “Why else are we here?” Mikko questioned.

  “The truth is we do not know where to go next. But we do know where the end is. What we need is a route to the end, so we will keep going until we find it.”

  “Wow,” Mikko laughed. “I had no idea you three went into this without coming up with a solid plan!”

  “There was no time for any,” Hermon replied.

  “So we’ll be walking out in the open, while the world is gradually descending into chaos, very good,” Mikko said.

  “If I did not know better,” D’rmas said, “I would say you were scared.”

  “You know, maybe, I should give you the fight you’re asking for,” Mikko said, his voice tainted with fury. “Don’t think your ability to channel two classes of magic makes you impervious. You have no idea who I am.”

  D’rmas chuckled. And the three fell silent once more. It was not long before they heard the sound of sizzling in the air. Hermon was the first to see the line of light slicing through the air, forming a door frame.

  “They are here,” he said. They had come here, some moments ago, through the same portal. The men stood as Eldana and Siem walked out of the portal with rucksacks on their backs.

  “Ah, they got theirs too,” Mikko said, patting his own rucksack.

  Techle stepped out into the open as Eldana and Siem walked out. He watched them join the group, and then they turned towards him. D’rmas was the first to speak. He cleared his throat. “Thank you, friend,” he told Techle. “For your immense hospitality, I say thank you. We cannot thank you enough. I hope our paths cross again.”

  Techle smiled and nodded, before Mikko said his thanks, and so did Hermon, and the women.

  “As some of you may have guessed, the house decided to save you the hurdle of crossing the gates successfully,” Techle said. “You are a few miles away from the city’s southern gate. Your journey, wherever it may lead, will not be an easy one.” He hoped his kindness and his willingness to discard tradition would not throw the world into endless chaos.

  D’rmas smiled.

  Finally got your challenge, Hermon thought.

  “I
do not know what fate holds for you all,” Techle continued. “But all of you have destinies, paths set out for you that you must follow. Be safe, my friends. The world is going into a state of disarray. Evil has already entered the hearts of men and clans are rising against clans. Do not get trapped in it. Most importantly, be successful.”

  “We will keep that in mind,” Siem replied.

  Techle gave them a word of blessing, one with roots in the ancient magic of those who had walked the land several millennia ago.

  “Mo sa el,” Techle said.

  “Mo sa el,” they all replied.

  He gave them one last farewell smile before he stepped back into the portal.

  “That there is a fine gentleman,” Mikko said.

  “Indeed,” D’rmas replied, his eyes still fixed to the spot Techle was standing in moments ago. “And a nice house too.”

  The comment roused a measure of small laughter among the men. Hermon could not help letting out a mild chuckle.

  As Eldana approached the horses, she whispered magic words of illumination. “Merai,”

  Immediately, the air around the horses softened into a mild silver glow, revealing the creatures. Eldana felt a stab of sadness and nostalgia at the use of the spell. It was a trick Sinto had taught her back then when things were all good between them. Now Sinto was leading a group of warrior magicians to kill her. Eldana tried to swipe thoughts of him away. Now that Sinto’s intentions were clear, if she ever faced him again in battle, it would be with cold, rigid emotions and the self-sustaining desire to see his head fell off his neck rather than hers.

  The horses were impressive, beasts of thick, refined musculature and noble carriage. They stomped their feet and snorted as the group drew closer.

  “Easy,” Eldana cooed. “Easy.” She stretched forth her hands in a calming gesture while she stepped closer.

  “Wow, she’s good.” Mikko commended.

  “Yeah, she should be,” Hermon said. “She practically grew up around horses.”

  “If it were me, I would not take the time to bring them into submission. A simple control spell should do the trick,” Mikko said.

  “Not Eldana,” Hermon replied. “She is averse to binding animals without their will.”

  “A good story,” D’rmas chipped in. “But horses are horses.”

  “Not to Eldana,” Hermon said. “She prefers them when they are companions. The assurance of their loyalty is certain that way.”

  D’rmas grunted.

  Eldana placed her hand on the head of the first horse to her right, a maroon mare with patches of white and a luxurious mane. She looked up at it and smiled. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Eldana. I’m going to call you Betsy.”

  Betsy pushed her head closer to Eldana’s palm.

  “I’ve found mine already.” She called out to the company.

  For the rest of the group, picking a horse was a thing of little circumstance now that they had all been calmed. Siem picked a black steed that she named Harold. Hermon and the rest of the men did not bother assigning names to theirs. As soon as they were all settled, they spurred the horses into a trot, and soon they moved into the woods.

  The woods of Ciroc, as the people in the city center called it, was a massive expanse of thick, giant trees. The ground was always carpeted with dead leaves – even when the trees were not deciduous – and shrubs – which burst with life, even when the trees stole much of the sunlight. It was normal for people to wind up lost when they ventured into it without a clear destination in mind.

  Eldana and her group of five found traveling through the Ciroc woods an apt manoeuvre from the amount of attention they would attract if they followed the major roads.

  Lord Taboon and his goons would still be in search of Eldana, so would Sinto, and the king of Middle. Plus, the whole of Toas had gone out of hand. If they got themselves embroiled in a skirmish between towns, they would not be able to fulfil their mission before chaos swallowed the entire land.

  The first few hours of their journey into the forest was done in silence. Siem and Eldana rode in front. Hermon rode alone a little behind them. D’rmas and Mikko brought up the rear. The hooves of their horses made a shuffling sound across the mat of leaves, and shrubs. The only evidence that the sun had risen was the few streaks of sunlight that pierced through the thick canopy of trees. At one time, they came upon a black jaguar, nestled in the low branches of a curving tree. The magic cloaks Techle had provided them prevented them from unwarranted attacks. So, the jaguar stared at them inconsequentially until they passed under it, away from its sight.

  Along the way, Mikko stopped to relieve himself.

  “What?” Mikko asked when D’rmas stared at him endlessly. “Is it a crime to take a piss now?”

  D’rmas simply looked away.

  Mikko walked away from his horse and further left into the company of trees in his search for privacy. “A man has got to do his thing without an audience.” He joked, before walking off.

  Hermon took the temporary stop to meet up with his friends. He kicked his horse, and it came up to Eldana and Siem.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked.

  “Fine,” Eldana replied.

  “You?” Siem asked.

  “Fine,” Hermon replied. “Our passage through the woods has seen no obstacle or incident since we started.”

  Siem turned to see if Mikko was on his way back. He was not. But before she brought her face back, she caught D’rmas with a scowl on his face.

  “Speak for yourself,” she told Hermon and pushed her head forward, gesturing towards D’rmas’ position.

  “What is wrong with your friend?” Eldana asked Hermon.

  “O come on, Eldana, not you too,” Hermon moaned. “He is not my friend. Besides his occupation, his clan, and his name, I don’t know anything else about him.”

  Siem chuckled.

  “Okay,” Eldana said. “But what is wrong with him?”

  “I do not know,” Hermon replied with a little off-handedness. “I guess he is just bored. D’rmas is a man who is in love with the heat of action. I should know. I almost killed him because of that love. The morning has been uneventful so far, no challenge, nothing.”

  “I imagine the silence must be depressing for him,” Eldana said.

  “Well, he should get himself together,” Siem said. “It will not be long before he gets what he is asking for.”

  “And Hermon?” Eldana called.

  “Yeah?” He replied.

  “That thing you said about not being D’rmas’ friend?”

  “Yeah, what about it?” Hermon asked.

  “I think you should start thinking about knowing him better,” Eldana advised.

  “No, no, no,” Hermon said, shaking his head vehemently.

  “What?” Eldana asked with a touch of incredulity. “Why?”

  “Because I do not have to,” Hermon replied. “What’s there to gain anyway? His way of life and mine are kingdoms, years apart!”

  “Eldana is right, Hermon,” Siem supplied.

  Hermon groaned.

  “What we are doing is too important to depend only on contracts. It will need loyalty, the kind that stems from friendship and trust. We need to build that among the entire group if we are to succeed. There is only so much just the three of us can do. Mikko’s apprenticeship under Lord Taboon makes him an unusually strong magician, and so is D’rmas. We need their strength!”

  “Fine,” Hermon said, rolling his eyes.

  Just then they heard the sound of footsteps coming up to them. They turned to find D’rmas walking up to them on his horse. His left hand held the straps of Mikko’s horse, bringing it along with him.

  “He’s not yet back,” D’rmas said in a deadpan voice.

  The four of them exchanged stares for a time until
Eldana broke it.

  “How much time do you reckon he has taken?” she asked everyone.

  “I would say four hundred and eighty heartbeats,” D’rmas supplied.

  “Is that not more than enough time to empty your bladder?” Siem asked, staring at Hermon.

  “Why are you looking at me?” Hermon questioned, surprisingly.

  “You are a guy,” Siem replied.

  “Yes. And so is D’rmas.”

  Eldana rolled her eyes and Siem sighed.

  “Yes,” D’rmas replied, cutting off the span of silence. “That is more than enough for a man to take a piss, even if his bladder were full to the point of bursting.”

  “Could he have run away?” Eldana asked.

  “I do not know. Why would he escape?” Siem asked.

  “I would not place escaping past Mikko,” D’rmas said. “The level of silence and utter boredom in this place scared him until he almost pissed his pants. He could not help but imagine how scary the real action must be.”

  “Thank you, D’rmas,” Siem said. “We appreciate your sarcasm, really.”

  He grunted.

  “Do any of us still remember the exact path he took into the forest?” Eldana asked. “He might be in danger. Maybe a wild animal has him or something. This forest is not without threat!”

  “He still had his cloak on him,” D’rmas said. “That should have protected him from any premeditated attack.”

  “What if the attack is not premeditated?” Hermon asked.

  “Excuse me?” Eldana replied, incomprehension written plain on her face.

  “I am saying that the attack, if this is what it is, could be premeditated on Mikko’s part.” Hermon rephrased.

  “Mikko cannot be that stupid,” Siem stated.

  “While we sit here on horses debating if he is in danger,” Eldana said, “he could be slipping beyond our salvation.”

  They climbed down their horses and turned to the dark woods all around, half-guessing the route that Mikko had taken. Before they ventured, D’rmas whispered a short spell. Immediately, the air began to stir around them. It gathered momentum with every passing breath, and then it formed a wall ensconcing the horses in. They would graze and walk about for as far as the air wall allowed and still be there when the party got back.