Legends of the Exiles
Page 14
A set of white horses were tied to the carriage, and a man stood beside it with a sword on his hip. She looked at him and cried out in terror. He had a face covered in thick scales of off-white. His hands and his neck were covered with black scales, and he had two horns over his ears that slid back along his crown and behind him. He was a demon, there was no doubt, and Jocelyn pulled back in horror. The beast turned, looked at her but said nothing.
The girl took Jocelyn’s hand with both of her own and pulled Jocelyn close.
“I will not let anyone hurt you,” the girl whispered. “Stay with me and I will protect you.”
Jocelyn wondered how a small child, no older than herself, could do any protecting, but she saw strength and power within this girl. Jocelyn looked at her for a long time, feeling the first bit of real peace since she had seen the boy so long ago.
“Will you be my friend?” Jocelyn asked.
“I have been your friend all of my life.”
Jocelyn thought that an odd thing to say, but said nothing.
Master spoke to the demon for a while longer before dismissing the beast. Jocelyn watched mesmerized as the monster sank into the ground and vanished.
“Get into the carriage. We must not tarry,” Master said.
“What was that?” Jocelyn asked.
Master shook his head. “You have asked the question at the wrong time. I have no time to answer. Now, when I will have time to answer, I could, if it benefitted me, prepare a lie. You have mis-stepped. Do not do it again.”
She climbed into the carriage after the girl and the master locked the door. Within a breath, the carriage jerked to movement.
The inside was covered in padding made of white leather. It had two comfortable seats, and she stared across the expanse between the seats at the girl before her.
“You are Jocelyn,” the girl said. “I am Drelis Blesstest. We will be great friends.”
Jocelyn sighed in relief. She stood and carefully moved to the seat beside Drelis. They held hands and Jocelyn felt better, stronger, more prepared.
“What do you know?” Drelis asked.
“I can see a scary young boy with no mouth. He is trying to get me. I think he will kill me if he can.”
“I doubt that very much. He is not the killing sort. He will help you.”
Jocelyn knew that was wrong. “What do you know?” she asked.
“I am the Blesstest. I am going to receive the gift of sight, and I will give birth to a hero. I will marry a mighty man, and he will give me a giant of a child. I cannot see this child, but I know she will save the world. She will be a great leader of men and will change the course of the future.”
“I’m jealous,” Jocelyn said. “I will never have a child.”
“How are you so sure?” Drelis asked.
“I just know.” Jocelyn looked at the little girl’s hand in hers, and she felt ready to bear the great secret she had been keeping for as long as she could remember. “I fear I will never marry. My father will grow angry with me and shun me, and I will wander the world, alone and afraid. My lovers will be villains and I will walk the world as a blight.”
The girl shook her head. “You are the Demontser. You will do great things. You may be lonely, but you will be mighty, and you will save many lives in your time.”
Drelis looked so positive that the things she was saying would be true, but Jocelyn feared they were lies.
“Do you think we get to choose our destinies?” Jocelyn asked.
“I think we do,” Drelis answered.
“Then I will deny the Demontser and marry a boy from the War Pack,” she said. “I may not be able to give him children. I may not be able to love him. But I will marry him.” Jocelyn looked the girl in the eye. “I swear it to be so.”
Drelis nodded with a sad look on her face. “I see,” was all she said.
The sound outside began to mute, the carriage jangling less and the sounds of the horses quieting. Both girls went to the window and stuck their heads out. Jocelyn stared in wonder.
“Have you ever seen so much fog?” she asked.
“My home had a lot of fog,” Drelis said. “We lived close to the ocean, me and my father. But never have I seen a mist this thick before.”
“Do you think we will get lost in it?”
“No way. Master is all knowing. He will never get lost. He would know his way in a blizzard, in a desert. We are safe with him.”
Jocelyn could not pull her eyes from the thick white. “How do you know he is a good man? How do you know we are safe with him?”
Drelis took her hand again and squeezed it. “My savior gave me to him.”
“What savior could you mean?” Jocelyn said.
“He came to me during the destruction of my village, with milk pale skin, dressed in flowing black. He came for me, fighting his way to me against impossible odds, but nothing could stand before him. His blade was a shard of glass. His eyes, peaceful. I'm not describing it right. He was immense and fragile. He came to me, scooped me up in his arms, and we escaped the city and the destruction. I traveled with him for many days, though he never spoke a word. He was so gentle with me, so loving.
“My guardian brought me to Master, handed me over to Master’s care, and we were set upon by forty or more fiends. They had followed from my village. Master said they had come looking for me. I saw what my savior and Master did to those forty or so men. It was fighting the likes of which I’d never seen before. Master is a powerful man. We’re safe with him. My guardian would not have it any other way.”
Jocelyn closed her eyes and tried to picture it, forty warriors fighting two men and all of them dying. She saw Steppen and the War Pack fighting Master and flinched at the decimation that would follow. She said nothing, but kept her eyes on the fog. She felt real fear wrapping around her body as she thought of the power of the one she had bound herself to.
The two girls stared out the window as they rode. The fog never cut, never faded, never parted. The night sky turned darker and darker, from a dark yellow to purple to a rich black, and all the while, the fog grew thicker. Jocelyn wondered how Master was sure of where he was going and knew they could easily get lost in the weather, but she did not say so. She decided she needed to learn to trust her teacher. She promised herself she would not doubt him.
Soon, they heard horse hooves not far from them, dozens, maybe scores of horses. She peered into the soupy fog until she saw a rider drawing near. She held Drelis and stared as it ran beside her, growing closer and closer to the carriage. She saw it riding strange, forward in the horse, as though the rider must be sitting on the horse’s neck before it came almost within reach to touch, and she stared in horror at the monster.
It had the body of a horse, but from the torso up to the crown of the head it was a naked man. The torso grew straight out of the horse’s neck. Jocelyn pulled back in terror. Drelis brought her closer to the window, and both girls stared in shock and wonder.
The beast looked at her with an odd bestial face, then his mouth twisted into what could have been a smile.
“Demontser, Blesstest, I greet you in excitement. Long I have been waiting to ride beside greatness such as yours. Please accept my hand in friendship.” His voice possessed a growl to it that soothed her. She had long decided that should a wolf be able to talk, it would sound quite like this. Jocelyn reached her hand out the window and the beast took it with calloused hand and leaned in to kiss it.
His furry face tickled her fingers, and she giggled. Drelis looked out at the fog beyond him as she stuck her hand out the window for him to kiss. “How many of you are there? It sounds like you number in the scores,” Drelis said.
“We are four thousand. We are here to make sure you make it through the night unharmed.”
“Four thousand?” Jocelyn said. “Surely you jest. You sound like much less.”
“The dream mutes the rumble of our numbers. We are many. I hope to get you through this night safely.”
“Backkus,” he said. “My name is Backkus. I am your servant.”
She looked at the powerful bow that rested on his back and the great sword that hung on his side, and she felt safe indeed.
He pulled closer. “May I request you return to your seats? If a flyer swoops down, it may strive to carry you away.”
That was all they needed to hear. Both girls pulled back instantly. They looked at each other with bright smiles.
“Horse men,” Drelis said. She giggled. “We have horse men.”
Both girls clung tight to each other and lay down on the floor. They curled around one another and in moments fell asleep.
They woke to the sound of a shriek. They cried out loud. Jocelyn wrapped her arms around Drelis as tight as she could. “He is here for me,” she said. Then another scream, a great war cry rose up around her, and the sounds of fighting.
Jocelyn shuddered. “They are fighting to get to us.”
Drelis nodded. They held to each other tight as the battle went on outside and the carriage kept its impossible pace. Something slammed into the side of the carriage and they screamed. More shouting and screaming. Jocelyn’s fear rose to mind-numbing levels.
All night the fighting went on until the dawn broke, and all at once the ground went quiet, save the sound of hoof beats. When she heard a great grunt from hundreds of voices, she went to the window to look out at the lightening sky.
Backkus rode beside them with a grimace on his face. He carried his mighty sword, was covered in cuts and doused in blood. He had a horrible gash across his face, and gave them a weary smile.
He nodded, and they pulled back horrified.
*******
They rode all morning. Jocelyn realized the horses never grew tired. The horse men rode with them until the sun was up full in the sky before Backkus called out to them, said his goodbyes, and was gone. The sound of the horse men drifted away. With it came near silence, just the slight jangling of the carriage and the sound of the muted horse hooves of those pulling them along. They rode for half a day, until the carriage burst into sudden light, and they looked out the window, seeing no more fog. When the carriage came to a stop, they waited for Master to get them out.
He opened the door and, though she expected to see him haggard and exhausted, he was fresh and bright. He smiled and beckoned them out.
“I trust you two have become bosom friends,” he said. Jocelyn looked at Drelis, who looked back and they took hands. Jocelyn kissed Drelis’s fingers and Master nodded. “Wonderful. Come with me.”
When they touched the ground, they stumbled uneasy on their feet. They rushed to keep up with Master, but now he walked very slowly. They entered a plush green wood not far from the carriage, and Jocelyn felt the softness of the ground here and smiled. She kicked her slippers off, giggled at the thick bed of nettles and moss under her feet. Drelis kicked hers off as well, and they laughed as they walked.
“You may run,” Master said, and the two girls burst into a run. They jumped bushes and fallen logs. They climbed rocks and leapt from them. They ducked under tree limbs and splashed through the brooks and they laughed.
All at once they were hit with a wave of butterflies, a flood of them, and they hurried to a stop and stared at one another as they were wrapped in the soft flutter of wings. They hummed as they flapped, and Jocelyn closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky. She grinned. When she opened her eyes, Drelis was covered in the insects that had stopped their flapping to alight on her skin. She looked like a girl-shaped carpet of butterflies, then Jocelyn noticed none of the creatures had landed on her. She wondered at the fact that she felt no jealousy at this, and she could only stare and laugh.
When the flood had passed them by, they broke out in a run again and burst out of the forest into a thick carpet of grass. There was a great hill before them, and both girls jumped at once, lying on their sides and tumbling down the hill laughing.
It was the most fun Jocelyn had ever had, and she never wanted to go back to her people. She wanted to stay in this paradise forever.
Master joined them at the bottom of the hill, his face filled with all the kindness in the world.
Jocelyn was happy.
They walked for a long time before the first of the thick vines rose up from the ground. The vines splayed out, heading in toward one spot. They became very thick, standing a foot, then two off the ground, then more. Master grabbed them both by the waist and set them on a vine. He climbed up in front of them, and they followed as he walked on, the vine growing like a giant root on the base of a massive tree.
Birds flew in a wave over their heads, crying out in joyous music the beauty of the world. At first, it was hard for Jocelyn to keep her balance, but as the vine grew in thickness, it became as easy as walking a patch of ground. Soon, it seemed as if they were just walking a hill, and beneath them the very ground heaved in slow, measured breaths.
The vines met a great hill that rose up out of the ground, and they climbed its side to eventually reach a dome that overlooked the grassland. From here, the vines radiated out from this hill like hair on a sleeping head. They walked a round hill until they reached a high place where a peak rose behind them to stab up at the sky. They walked to the edge of a ridge and looked down at a divot that broke into a smaller hill sunken in. She gazed at it all around her and did not see where she was, until Drelis grabbed her hand and squeezed. Jocelyn saw they stood on a massive face rising up out of the ground. They rested now on its forehead, and Jocelyn trembled in terror at the magnitude of the being they stood upon.
“Hold no fear in your hearts for the greatness that rests below us,” Master said. “Her time to rise has not come, and while Lona sleeps, no man need fear her. Even if she did open her great eyes and stir, she would hold you as dear and keep you close. For her love for those you serve is great, and her devotion to the people of Perilisc even greater.” He took their hands in his, and Jocelyn felt peace radiating from him in small puffs like the sweet breath of a caring parent, pulling her in close for an embrace. They turned from the closed eyes and the peak of a nose and began walking to the middle of the forehead.
Jocelyn gasped when she saw the emerald, larger than her father’s home, set in the center of the forehead. She climbed upon it, dropped to her knees to touch it and knock with small knuckles on its surface. The head shuddered slightly, and she jumped. She looked up at Master in fear.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Please don’t send me home.” She was close to tears, her chin crumpling as she stared.
“You have done nothing wrong, dear girl. You will not be sent home for curiosity. No, you will not go home yet. Now come. Join me and I will show you your destiny,” Master said.
She thought of the black-skinned boy with the terrifying eyes, and her heart stopped in her chest. Master took her hand, pulled her to her feet. They stepped onto the gem together and moved toward its center.
She could not pull her eyes from the many facets shifting and changing below her as she walked across the surface of the jewel. She was mesmerized by the movement of the light that seemed trapped under her.
“This is your path. I cannot walk it with you,” Master said. “But you two are soul bound and will walk your lives’ path as one. Cling to one another in this next stage. And when you get back, I will help you accept the gravity of your task.”
They both nodded. As they stepped to the center of the jewel, where the lines of the facets all peaked below the surface, Master walked away. When he stepped off the emerald there was an explosion of light, and they were suffused with a warm, green glow. Slowly she felt the light wrap her body and support her. She gripped tighter to Drelis as they lifted into the air, hovering.
A massive power grew under them. Jocelyn’s entire body quaked as, with a great burst of force, they were driven straight into th
e air. They shot up, their eyes strained at the sky above. Drelis screamed as they were thrown higher and higher into the air until they arched out over the clouds and into the highest peaks of air and earth.
They hung suspended. The light began to fade and they slowly lowered to the surface of a cloud. Drelis and Jocelyn dropped to their knees, sobbing in fear as the cloud pulsed beneath them. They crawled to one another’s side and hugged each other tight until the worst of the fear had passed, then rolled over to look at the ground they stood upon.
The cloud vibrated in a great hum and Jocelyn gripped it, feeling the ground give to her prying fingers. She gripped it tight and felt a bit of security. Drelis grabbed Jocelyn, and they crawled toward the edge of the cloud to peer down at the world beneath them.
Grass stretched out below them for ages until it gave way to a great forest to the west. A monolith of a tree stood within its heart. They looked the other direction, seeing mountains, and Jocelyn stared as she studied the details. She saw many clumps of people bound together by gatherings of huts. A valley boasted seven great statues within the side of a cliff. She knew those men, knew their stories and their myths. She gazed at them and felt love radiating from them. She turned to Drelis, who was just then getting to her feet. She looked the opposite direction, and Jocelyn could see tears forming in her eyes.
Jocelyn stood and wrapped her arms around her friend.
Drelis lowered her head and whispered, “It is all gone.”
Jocelyn wept. She did not know why.
When they had seen the world below them, they turned to look at the ground they now stood on and saw a wall to end all walls. It gleamed like polished steel and was as high as it was wide. It looked like the side of a great cube, and they stared at it in wonder. It occurred to Jocelyn that the boy was in there, and she looked down at the ground below them.
“Let us go back,” she said. “The world is too big. We have seen too much to go any further. I will love you, and you will love me, and we can live as sisters together for the rest of our days.”