by G S Santos
"As I would like some dumplings right now," Tristan sighed, "accompanied by sour cream with onions cut into pieces and pepper. A delicacy."
"Sir Von Liktberg, please stop."
"That's what I want. But call me Tristan, please."
"Tristan..."
"But we'll have it. Wait, when we get to Ingiria, with some flour and meat from the market we will do wonders."
Maybe the biggest man was the most dependent on food. Otherwise, he would get small and scrawny.
Adelphine shook her head from side to side as if to help with the pain in her neck. She started thinking. What meaning would all of that have? Did Tara put her there to learn? Or just to do that silly mountain hike? All of that for the single branch of a bush? That was it! She just had to continue with the farce for as long as the trip lasted.
She needed a map if she was going to look for the purple herbs. Maybe the herbs would be what gave her the power to do the job well.
"Hey, Tristan," she said.
"Yes?"
"There is a mountain... I have heard of it. I mean, I think there are mineral deposits there. I think it's out there. Do you know of it? I see it in my dreams."
"What does it look like?"
"It’s very high. Exceedingly high."
"There are many high ones around here."
"Mount... Svo..."
"Svogod?" Klaus interrupted.
"That!" she said.
"It's a spooky place!" said Magzas.
The old man shook his head. "It is the place that locals fear because it is supposed to be inhabited by a man-eating spirit. Cowards! If there is something there, it’s just a bunch of bandits."
"I've seen it, or Her, as they call it," said Tristan. This time his voice was not pompous, but timid and even insinuating fear.
Adelphine looked at him perplexed.
Tristan sighed, then continued.
"That place is strange. But those who live there are not thieves. No. I think there are spirits in that place... Nothing else can explain it. The damn place is haunted."
"And there is blue gold up there, you say?" Klaus turned to Adelphine.
"Yes." Adelphine's voice was much softer than usual. She felt it was not good to lie, but she did it anyway. "That's what the spirits tell me."
"These silly superstitions can only get us in trouble, nothing else." The old man scowled.
"Uncle Wilthers..." Klaus interrupted. "Give her a chance, for the love of the gods! Although it has nothing to do with the spirits. Is it not worth studying the place?"
"Do not tell me you will not come with us," Magzas insinuated, looking at Tristan.
Tristan shook his head, still looking straight ahead. He seemed hesitant.
"After exploring the mines... I have no problem with going. But it's a strange place, and maybe it's worth taking more security. Or exorcists."
"If there is anything there, it’s a gang of bandits," Wilters continued. "And they have veiled the place with superstitions. Maybe they have even done tricks to keep the masses away."
"This makes me wonder..." Klaus added. Do we know whether bandits traffic blue gold?"
"Good question," Wilters said. “You, Liktberg. Have you ever seen of the sort?"
"It is well known," said Tristan. If they extract their own blue gold, I doubt it, but they have stolen cargoes and treasures."
Suddenly, the carriage stopped and Adelphine almost bumped her forehead with Wilthers’. The front window opened. The driver poked his head in and said something that to Adelphine sounded like gibberish.
The man behind nodded and scowled with a coarse accent. "You can go out and do your stuff now. But come back on time because we will not wait. Even if they are women." He stared at Adelphine. "If we leave you, we’ll rest better."
Adelphine frowned. Who did he think he was to say such a stupid thing? At that, the back door opened and Tristan walked out. He stretched out his arms and legs, sighing with a loud voice.
Klaus came out and tried to help Wilthers, who pulled his hand away from his nephew with a complaint and jumped awkwardly on his own. Then Adelphine walked out with Magzas behind her. The cold bit her skin. It had been little more than a day of constant riding after the first stops, and everything was frozen. On the side of the path, there were tall, proud pines and a tiny gulch, at the edge of which flowed a crystalline stream.
They jumped between the stones and went down the ravine to the stream that flowed constant and pure, with foam jumping between the stones like priestesses at a spring ritual. Adelphine came forward and looked at her reflection, she frowned as soon as she saw how tangled her hair was. Had she looked like that the whole time? She had to comb her hair. Magzas' hair was always so straight. What was her secret?
She reached into the stream. It was cold, but not too much. Suddenly she heard a splash. She looked to the side and saw Tristan with the water up to his hip, with his muscular torso exposed, raising his hand and thrusting it into the water at great speed.
"What are you doing?" Adelphine asked.
"You'll see," Tristan replied and withdrew his hand from the water. He looked at the transparent stream. In an instant, his hand sank once again, then he took it out with a fish shaking, splashing water that reached his face.
Adelphine could not help but smile.
"For you, miss." He threw it into a basket on the shore.
She felt a shadow perch beside him. It was Klaus, arms crossed and smiling, looking at Tristan.
"So you are also a fisherman. Is there anything you can’t do? You are like those Swabian knives that have everything included."
"I owe it to my mentor," Tristan said, and proceeded to capture another fish, a rutile, this time larger than the last, waving its tail as if that could free it from Tristan's hands.
After catching half a dozen fish, he flayed them like an expert, seasoned them with bags of spices prepared by himself and that he carried on his belt, and roasted them in a campfire by the forest.
He shared with everyone, and even the boys in the red cloaks seemed happy about his gesture.
"Take mine," Magzas said to Adelphine. "I do not eat meat."
"No meat? Are you crazy? It is not even meat, it’s fish."
"It is an animal that feels. Like us."
"Magzas, if even apples have spirit, we will die of hunger."
"Don't worry, I'm not telling you not to eat it. Come on, eat mine."
Adelphine nodded and nibbled the piece of fish. She could not help but keep an eye on Tristan, his muscular back. It was disgusting, like a ball of clay that someone had squeezed with his fingers; but at the same time, very attractive. She herself wanted to squeeze it with her hands.
"I had even believed that everything he said was a lie," Adelphine said. "Honestly, he's not a bad person."
"I told you," Magzas smiled.
Adelphine let out a silent sigh. She lay down on top of the long, fresh grass. The wind that never stopped caressed her. She should have put on a coat. The weight of her eyelids defeated her. She shut her eyes. Strange scenes circulated through her mind. Her body stuck between rocks, her torso devoured by wolves, falling from the top of the mountain. From Mount Svogod.
She opened her eyes suddenly and leaned her torso forward. It had been a dream, nothing more. She turned to look to the right and felt her heart stop.
Now Klaus's body was in front of her, pale and thin, his back turned, submerged in the water, jumping and playing in the current, completely naked. She saw things about him that she did not need to see. Behind him was Tristan, with his chest and abdomen uncovered. Even the varganians seemed to enjoy.
They were all naked.
"Don’t you have any shame?" Adelphine shouted. "There are ladies here, I do not need to see that!"
"Join us!" Tristan laughed.
"We're going to find another place," she said. "Come Magzas." She spoke to the men. "And do not come near us!"
Adelphine turned her back on them, bag i
n hand, and walked up the river bed.
Magzas laughed as she followed her.
"And you were awake all that time?" Adelphine looked at her disapprovingly.
Magzas’ laughter grew louder. "I do not see the problem, Adelphine." Magzas looked at her with very large eyes in which she could even see her reflection.
"They're shameless! I cannot believe it! And how lucky you are that I did not find you dancing with them in their feast of smut."
"I notice some insecurities."
"Magzas, I cannot believe it!"
"You have to set your limits," Magzas said.
"How do you know if they will respect your limits?"
Magzas said nothing.
They walked to a small clearing, wider and more illuminated than where they had stopped to rest, autumn-red trees and bushes of all kinds surrounded the road and swallowed it. They jumped among the stones and held on to the branches at the edges.
Large rocks blocked the passage of water and formed a small waterfall, crystalline and sweet.
"Now, yes," Adelphine said, finally dropping her dress. She felt the cold biting her skin, now like chicken. She shivered a little and took a deep breath, careful not to think about the temperature of her body.
She had not set foot in the standing water when Magzas was already swimming from one place to another.
Adelphine began to doubt, but the cold could not beat her. In addition, it would make her look cowardly before Magzas. She put a foot in the water. It was cruelly cold. She shut her eyes and jumped, bringing her knees to the chest and entering the water with a splash.
Her body felt the blow of the cold and, between tremors, it was relieved little by little. She swam from one side of the pond to the other.
"This feels so nice!" she declared, burying her head in the water and floating. "Especially after spending three days locked in a carriage."
She floated with her head up, breathing deeply and smiling, as the sun got lost among the leafy branches. She shut her eyes, floating adrift. She wanted to dissolve. But she had more important things to do and think about. All around her there were birds singing. Some strong, others gently with continuous and elegant whistles. Others aggressive. Until a voice broke his relaxation.
"Adel. Who do you like more? Tristan or Klaus?"
"Me?" Adelphine turned around. "Tristan is a scoundrel."
"I've seen how you look at him." Magzas grimaced.
Adelphine could not stop blood from flowing to her face. She turned her back on Magzas to disguise it.
"I don’t. Well, he is beautiful."
"He’s big and strong. And he knows how to do everything. You said it yourself."
"Yes, he has something to him. But he is not my type. He is very unpredictable. Also, he looks like the type of guy that likes to have a lot of girls. I could not have him just for me, and that’s not right."
"How do you know? Since when is that a reason? You can be his only one. You can teach him to need you. As I told you, men who think they are strong are always soft inside."
"If you like him that much." Adelphine stared at her, at her black long hair, wet and perfectly straight. "Why do not you go for it?"
"It’s your chance. I am not a marrying type. You are the one who has never had a boyfriend!"
Adelphine shook her head. She gave a sigh and plunged back into the current, swam on her back, toward the rocks and back.
"Who says I am the marrying type?"
"I can tell."
"Whatever."
She tried to put out the world around her. But Tristan's image did come back to her mind. It was just a fascination, she thought. He was attractive, it was natural.
"And the other boy, Klaus. He’s not bad," Magzas added. Adelphine could not pretend she had not heard her.
"Klaus is good, yes. He looks innocent."
"But he's not the exciting guy. Think about it. Or maybe he is. We’ll get to know him," Magzas added.
"Better to stay with the quiet one. Looks safer," Adelphine said. "And that does not mean that I want to stay with either of them."
But in the back of her mind, if any, Tristan would be the better choice.
"As you say," Magzas said, plunging into the stream.
Adelphine wanted to climb the moss-rich stone next to the limestone wall, but as soon as she removed her torso from the water, an intense cold enveloped her. She shivered like a demon and decided to go back to the water. Suddenly, she saw a figure approaching between the leaves. He stuck his head out between the stones, Tristan crouched with his torso covered by the leaves, but his head and beard were unmistakable.
She turned pale and looked at him with displeasure. "What do you think you’re..."
Before she finished her sentence, Tristan stretched his arm out, quick, like a rattlesnake’s jump. Something came out of his hand. She followed a silhouette through the air to the other shore. On the other side, a human figure collapsed from the top of a tree, his body naked and painted with the color of the leaves and a dagger stuck in his skull. He fell into the water with a big splash, and that part of the stream was dyed red.
Adelphine screamed and jumped on the stone. Magzas was already on the shore.
Adelphine gasped. She looked at Tristan and he returned the serious look. It seemed that he burned her with his eyes. Then she remembered that she was naked. Another scream followed and she jumped into the water to cover her body.
Tristan approached the shore and reached for the towel and her clothes. He put his finger in front of his lips.
"There is another one," he whispered.
Adelphine looked at him with wide eyes and nodded slowly. She hastened to get dressed. Tristan looked around. Suddenly, a buzz flew in his direction. Tristan's hands were faster. He caught a long arrow with long, yellow feathers on its tail. In less than a second, he threw another dagger that faded into the foliage, and there was a scream in the bushes.
He kept waiting, with his eyes fixed on the foliage and a cold expression on his face. When it seemed the danger had passed, he frowned at Adelphine.
"Did you think that migrating birds trill in autumn? Those were no birds!"
"I did not know!"
"Thus, they talk through the forest," Tristan said, not looking into her eyes, with all his attention in the shadows of the forest, until he looked at her. It seemed like I could melt iron with those eyes. He said each word clearly and slowly. "Don't leave the group."
***
A day had passed, and the carriage was moving the same way into what seemed the realm of the cold and the unknown. Adelphine remained inside the carriage with her head resting on the bony shoulders of Magzas and without addressing the word to Wilthers and Klaus, although the latter had tried to talk to them a while ago, and Magzas had silenced him.
She looked out the window, through the golden curtains, at Tristan, hooded, with the big sword in a scabbard tied to his back, a pair of axes tinkling as they hung from his belt, and riding the steed of one of the soldiers who had been killed while she bathed in the river.
The soldier had told his companions that he was going to relieve himself. Tristan, Magzas, and Adelphine found his body on the road with his head open like the chest of a pig before being cut off, and his brain dripping like melted butter. Adelphine did not vomit, luckily, but she could not sleep that night, thinking it could have been her, if they did not take her as a slave.
But Tristan did not act the same. He had told her not to walk a yard away from him, and that he would take care of her, and by definition, of Magzas.
He looked so cold, so much more than before, as if his senses gave themselves completely to the safety of that entourage. And hers, as he had promised. It seemed that Adelphine's gaze was calling him, because his eye fell on hers and he winked. Adelphine smiled.
"And where did you learn to do magic?" Klaus interrupted her and pulled her out of the trance.
"Who are you asking?" Adelphine said, looking at Magzas, who at t
hat moment was sleeping like a log.
"You." Klaus looked down.
"Yes... Sure... I... I had a teacher who taught me the mystical arts."
"In this city of Vilnas?"
"Yes, in the capital. She was a very wise and mysterious woman."
"I imagine you studied for a long time," he said.
"Quite." Adelphine let out a silly smile, hiding the guilt of having to lie all the time.
"Interesting."
Old man Wilthers seemed interested because he leaned forward and looked Adelphine in the eye. He smiled with his wooden teeth.
"And tell me... What do you feel when you detect the metal?"
"Well... I feel like it's calling me, nothing else, it makes me feel like the metal is in one place and..."
"And you're never wrong?" Klaus said.
"I’m right most of the time…"
"This is true," Wilthers addressed his nephew. "Superstitious people have a dichotomy in their mind, if things go well, it's because magic worked, if they do not work out, they think something was missing. Of course, everything happens at random, it has nothing to do neither the practice of magic, nor the ritual they do previously. Everything formulates their belief."
"Uncle, please." Klaus's face changed from curious to annoyed. "Do not shame us like that, respect that not all people are like you. There are people who think differently. You do not have to humiliate them!"
"Who would you believe? You must respect the words of your uncle! What have I told you? This generation is rebellious and selfish. Do not you see that for people like this the world is like this?"
That was too much for Adelphine, who felt the blood rise to her head like a pressure cooker."What are you saying, old fool?" She raised her voice and gave Wilthers her most annoyed look. "Who do you think you are? You'll see when you cannot wake up for a spell!"
Then he noticed that Klaus was pale, as he looked through the window.
"I do not care what the witches say!" Wilthers shouted. "They're all nonsense, too bad the kings still respect those absurd beliefs. Well, with luck, soon it's going to be over..."
Suddenly, the carriage stopped abruptly, and Wilthers jumped on his seat to the front. Adelphine banged her head against the wood behind her.