Vedientir

by Ivan Hladni

  "As soon as possible," answered Kerkio. "While it's still early."

  Teikos called him into the house.

  "How much do you need?" asked Teikos when they entered the kitchen, looking around to see what can be packed.

  "For two days at the most. I don't want to carry too much since there's a great tavern in Barda Rei right next to the bridge over the Barda. We can get there by nightfall if we go soon. It's more important that I don't forget to take my coins to pay for our trip from Phares to Phares Nova and back."

  "Here. Put this on the top of his bag and find that foldable pan of mine," Teikos said to his wife and handed her a large slab of smoked bacon. He then took a knife to another piece of bacon and he carefully cut off the skin from the bottom, dry and tough from smoking, three times larger than his opened palm.

  "Dion. Come eat with Kerkio before you leave," Teikos called him from inside the kitchen.

  "Are we going already?" asked Dion when he peeked inside. He received Kerkio's nod first and then Teikos gave him the bacon skin. It was brown-black, and hard, almost like a piece of leather armor.

  "Give this to your dragon. Let's see how tough his jaw and teeth are. My grandfather used to give bacon skin to me, but much smaller pieces, when he wanted me to be quiet and chew on something for a long time," said Teikos. He watched with great anticipation and a smidgen of childlike malice when Dion gave the bacon skin to the dragon and the dragon started wrestling with it in his mouth.

  ✽✽✽

  The dragon was still busy blissfully chewing the bacon skin when they left the house and stepped out onto the almost completely empty road. They waved to Lanika and Teikos once more, and started walking west towards Tialoch.

  Their only companion was morning silence that seemed out of place in this road that went through a large village situated next to the largest city of the kingdom. The ravens disturbed the silence briefly when they flew over their heads, croaked, and disappeared into the distance ahead of Dion, Kerkio and the dragon.

  "Now I know why you wanted to join the legion," Dion spoke now that he was sure that they were far away enough from the house.

  "You can feel at home in the legion, the only difference being is that Telurion is less strict than Lanika. I could tell the whole village was afraid of her."

  "Why didn't you tell that in front of her, hero?" replied Kerkio with a loud laugh.

  "I'm not crazy," Dion laughed back.

  "Let me ask you something," said Kerkio and grew a bit more serious. "Why are you still only wearing your shirt? Why didn't you put on the legionary equipment I brought with me yesterday?

  "I wouldn't feel comfortable in it. I'm not a legionary."

  "Well, I am," answered Kerkio. "I brought it to you and do not object you wearing it. I prefer having you in it rather than near it if we get into any sort of trouble along the way."

  "I'll put it on later, but I won't need it," replied Dion. "We'll be on some ship in Phares' harbor before any one of us needs either armor or weapon."

  "The Pine crossroad," said Kerkio pointing down the road not far from them. "Tialoch already. Good."

  "I am really looking forward to seeing and smelling the Inner Sea again," said Dion. "I was very small the only time I saw it that I barely remember anything about it. The only things I remember are the smell of salt intertwined with the scent of hot tree resin and the incessant chirping of crickets that would unnerve a man in any other place in the world."

  "Yeah, the sea shore wouldn't be as lively without the crickets," agreed Kerkio and stopped them in the middle of the crossroad.

  "Listen," he said and looked toward the northern gate of Tialoch covered in gray gloom of a cloudy morning. Muffled thuds coming from behind the walls reached their ears.

  "What do you think that is?" asked Dion.

  "Catapults," answered Kerkio. "I met a few friends from the legion yesterday who whispered about the plan to destroy the Great Oak if at all possible. If that fails, they will try to retake it."

  "My belief in a good outcome of all this is weakening rapidly," said Dion.

  "You are right to worry," answered Kerkio with an equally serious voice. "The situation is already lousy enough that it wouldn't end well even if it were to end this very moment. I told my parents to prepare themselves and to come after us to Phares or Syevnor if the situation grows dire. But I am not sure that they will listen to me."

  The fears he managed to subdue at Kerkio's parents returned suddenly and he began resenting himself for staying so long there.

  "Let's go. If only we were already on a ship in Phares."

  "We'll be in Barda Rei today," Kerkio comforted him as they walked. "That's a bit more than twenty miles from here. We should get some quality rest there in a good bed. I expect we'll be in Phares by tomorrow afternoon and on a ship soon after we enter the city. Then we have a three day journey across the sea if the weather holds."

  The countryside to their right was dominated by endless fields of wheat. There were a few trees throughout the land, left intentionally to provide shade for workers when the summer heat becomes unbearable.

  They both noticed the large number of carts filled with dry hay in the passages between the fields. Each cart was manned by five men - one controlled the bull that pulled the cart while the other four pitchforked the hay onto the wheat fields.

  "You there!" Dion called the men from the closest group, but even they were so far away from the road that he was having trouble seeing if they heard him.

  "Ooo," answered one of the pitchfork men and turned towards the road.

  "What are you doing?" Dion asked him.

  "Our job," the man answered and got back to his work.

  "I can't believe that it has come to this already," said Dion to Kerkio, and then shouted back to the men in the fields.

  "Who told you to do that?"

  The same man answered him without stopping his work or turning around.

  "We work on the king's order."

  "But you are not going to burn the fields now?" Dion replied with a half worried, half angry voice.

  "No. Just preparing."

  "For when?"

  "We don't know."

  "A few fields of burned wheat won't stop them if they take Tialoch," Dion argued with Kerkio as they continued walking.

  "Every little thing helps."

  It took them quite a while to leave the fields behind and reach the Wilderness. The people of Tialoch used that name for the land bordered by Tialoch, Eborum and Phares, not because it was inhospitable or unknown, but simply because there were no large towns between the capital and the sea.

  "Messenger horses," said Kerkio. There was a hamlet further up the road, only a few houses strong, hiding behind a fenced clearing where a couple of horses grazed. An old man with sun ravaged skin appeared on the road from behind the fence. His long white mustache was so long that it also served as a small beard that surrounded his lips.

  "Good day," said Kerkio when they came closer to the old man.

  "Ey? Oh! Good, good," the old man answered.

  "The horses aren't for having, if that's why you look at them," the old man told Dion who was just then looking at the horses.

  "They arrived early this morning and have to rest. Two king's boys came, took the fresh horses and left."

  "Did anyone else pass through here? Someone strange looking? A tall woman dressed in black?" Dion asked the old man.

  "My eyes saw only the king's boys, you two, and this scaly thing of yours. It looks strange enough to me."

  "Thank you, old man," Kerkio finished their conversation and waved to him. "We'll be on our way now."

  They knew they reached the real Wilderness when they left the hamlet as the road that they walked on was the only thin sign of civilization left. The south mountain chain on their left was high and impenetrable, and only ended at the shores of the Inner Sea, southwest of Phares and Eborum. To their right the forest was thick and showed no intent of l
etting anyone easily pass through it.

  Midday had already passed when they stopped more from fatigue than hunger but decided to eat next to a fountain carved by some stone-master in the living stone of the south mountains. The mountain chain was rich with springs that were turned into fountains next to the road, used more by travelers than by villagers from the nearby hamlets.

  "I don't know if we're going to make it back in time," said Dion when he sat down on a moss-covered stone next to the fountain. A few lush trees that the mountain fed with spring water provided just enough shade for the three of them.

  "Tonight will be five days since the war started and three days since we left Echa," he continued while Kerkio was busy cutting pieces of bread and bacon.

  "We will be landbound for two more days at least and then everything depends on how many ships Jor Longin will be willing to send to Syevnor in search of our men. I can't even guess what message the king's men were carrying with them, but I will try to use this battle standard that I've been dragging across the kingdom to demand even more. If only I hadn't argued with the king. I might have learned more about his plans."

  "Yes, that kind of a thing is never wise, arguing with the king, even when that king is as lenient as ours," agreed Kerkio.

  "I am certain that Aris will do as I would do in his situation. He will choose the least resource intensive path home now that the Trees do not work, and that is by sea from Phares Nova to Phares. He won't go to Siltum for that port is much smaller than Phares Nova, nor will he take the land path east. At least I hope he won't."

  He stopped to drink some water.

  "I hope Longin has at least a few eights available for our journey to Syevnor tomorrow. If not, we will need hundreds of fives or smaller ships to get the whole legion back to Aelan. Eight thousand legionaries, a thousand horses, along with a thousand tents and other equipment, along with an additional hundred or so horses, mules and other beasts of burden."

  "I doubt there are that many available ships in Phares right now," replied Kerkio and gave Dion his part of the meal. He then cut off a thick piece of bacon for himself and ate it straight from the knife's edge, nibbling on it as he pulled it off the knife into his mouth.

  "Phares Nova also has a small number of ships, but I hope Syevnor will have some to give us. I also hope they will provide us with the rations for a three day crossing of the Inner Sea. The horses need around thirty liters of water per day, so that's a hundred thousand liters of water for all the horses for three days. That's five hundred barrels of water only for the animals. Add five more liters of water per legionary per day and that ends up being even more than is needed for the horses. I don't even want to calculate how much food we are going to need."

  "Neither do I," added Kerkio.

  Their discussion died down for a moment, but just long enough for them to hear the dragon snoring.

  "If the wind is favorable in both directions and we are able to reach five knots, the journey there and back will last at least four full days - that will be nine days since we left Echa. We'll need two more days to reach Tialoch. That's eleven days. Two more to Echa. That's thirteen days. I'm not counting the days we will need to find the legion."

  "It'll probably be too late. They won't have enough supplies to last that long," Kerkio said but quieted himself quickly. He was sorry he spoke out loud even though he knew Dion knew the odds himself.

  Both focused on the food from that moment on and continued eating until at one point Dion let his body slip onto the ground. He smiled at Kerkio for a brief moment before he closed his eyes.

  ✽✽✽

  "How long was I sleeping?" asked Dion when Kerkio's nudge woke him up.

  "Both of you slept two day parts away. I did not wake you sooner because both you and the dragon looked like you needed rest."

  They continued in a slower pace for several more day parts, stopping frequently to rest, because Dion saw that Kerkio was right about the dragon. They needed to slow down a little.

  "There it is! The inn!"

  Kerkio pointed towards the still faraway dark shape of a long two-story wooden house on the north side of the road. The inn and its yard were lit by several fires surrounded by shapes of people in a night that was growing steadily darker underneath ever thicker clouds. The air that cooled around them made the inn and its fires even more attractive.

  "Not a step more than what is needed to reach the first chair," said Dion and added more spring to his step. "I'll spend what's left of my coins on a hot dinner for the three of us, and after that the dragon's and my own mouth are your concern."

  "We'll see," answered Kerkio with a grin, but he sounded half-serious to Dion.

  The inn was located on a sizable estate situated next to the road and the bridge over the river Barda. The road to Phares was the estate's south border but the road and the inn's yard were made of the same stone blocks so it looked as if the road was leading both to the bridge and to the inn.

  On the west edge of the estate, lined next to the river from the bridge all the way north to where they connected with the inn were several smaller houses with cheaper rooms, two open kitchens whose fires they saw from the road, and several sheds.

  The inn was the largest and oldest of the buildings on the estate, built from wood that was gray now, except for the staircase that was redone recently and still retained the reddish-brown color of wood.

  There were twelve long tables in the yard and double that amount of benches, split in two groups of six, with a large walkway in the middle that led to the inn's entrance.

  Dion and Kerkio moved quickly to take a seat on the first table they came across, to the right of the walkway. From it they could see the inside of the inn, through the door that were as wide as four doors on a regular house. The innkeeper came out of that door almost as soon as they sat at the table. He walked straight toward the newly arrived strange guests, drawn probably by the sudden quiet of his other, slightly distressed, guests.

  "What can I offer?" asked the innkeeper who tried to avoid looking at the dragon directly. His was tall, clean shaven, had black oily hair, and wore an apron that was tarnished by brownish streaks of the meal of the day.

  "We need something big," said Dion and pointed at the dragon. "For our friend."

  "There's a lot of fish stew. There's roasted deer also. When we take the better parts from the bones then your friend, who I hope will not destroy my inn or the people in it, can have what is left. Is that suitable?"

  "It is," said Dion. "And your guests are not in harm's way."

  "Then welcome. You will be served shortly," the innkeeper greeted them finally and went back inside.

  The food appeared quickly and disappeared quickly from the plates. The other guests grew accustomed to the dragon's presence faster than expected. The beer probably helped speed things along and the dragon began receiving some of the other guests' portions.

  Dion's eyes soon began searching for the innkeeper. "Time to find a room. Don't be fooled by my open eyes."

  They remained at the table until a courteous young woman came for the two of them and led them to the stairs that began in the eastern corner of the inn and led upstairs to where the rooms were. She led each one of them to a separate room on the western side of the house where the murmur of the river could be heard a bit more than the voices of the inn's guests who were busy overfeeding the dragon.

  Dion called out to the dragon to tell him where he was and then closed the door of his room after the dragon assured him that he was all right. Sleepiness rushed at him instantly. It burst out from its hiding place beneath his eyelids and wrestled him onto the bed where it lay on top of him, victorious.

  Chapter 13 - Road to Phares

  They woke up to the smell of freshly baked bread and voices of people already hard at work in and around the inn. The smell dragged them out of their beds moments before the innkeeper called them down for breakfast. The two of them were seated at the same table where they dined
last night. They did not wake the dragon but left him where he was, wrapped around a cauldron.

  The bread they smelled earlier was brought to the table, followed by a large bowl of cream, sliced tomatoes and fried eggs. The innkeeper also brought them the local specialty, a sweet drink of roasted chicory and rye mixed with hot cow milk.

  Even after they left the inn, they felt so revitalized by the food and drink that they glanced longingly back towards the inn more than a few times.

  The morning air remained cold for longer than it did the day before despite the sun being strong and the sky cloudless. The dragon walked beside them for a while but then went ahead of them alone. He looked better spirited than he was yesterday, and Dion was sure he knew the reason why.

  "It's good he moved away from us," Dion said through a smile. "That fish stench on his breath is a chore to get used to."

  Kerkio smiled and smelled the air around them that did smell like the breakfast that the dragon had eaten. The innkeeper had given him what remained of the last night's fish stew.

  All three walked quickly and with very few short breaks they reached the only fork in the Pharesian road by noon. The south branch of the road led to the mining city of Eborum, high in the south mountain range.

  They continued northwest.

  "Do you have any idea how expensive the ships in Phares are?" asked Dion to move his thoughts away from the road that led them ever higher into the mountains.

  "If we find a Syevnorean merchant or if you use that standard again, or both, it could be free."

  "Understood. I'll wave with it from the gates to the docks if that gets us a good price," replied Dion while cleaning sweat from his forehead. Even the mountain air helped little to cool him down.

  "Rowing for pay is also an option. You could do with more muscle on your bones," was Kerkio's suggestion to which Dion's reply was a wholehearted groan.

  "Grak!" came from behind them.

  It was the black raven. They haven't seen him or the white raven since yesterday morning. He came from the south with great speed, flew in a circle around them to slow down and landed on Dion's right shoulder. A croak later the white raven also appeared above their heads, circled in the air above them as the black raven did and then landed on Dion's left shoulder.