Vedientir

by Ivan Hladni

  Kerkio was close by, returning his coin sack into one of his pockets while a merchant placed a dried pork leg he just sold to Kerkio into a bag.

  Kerkio saw they were looking at him so he waved at them with his free hand and smiled.

  "It's smoked and nicely seasoned," he said and folded another sample slice into his mouth.

  Chapter 20 - The Camp

  Noon waited for them when they crossed the top of the hill behind Phares and joined the legion that was pouring out of the forest onto the road. Two more day parts passed before they dismounted in the yard of the inn in Barda Rei.

  Barda Rei was overflowing with legionaries who were headed to the vast field on the eastern edge of the estate of innkeeper Matlas. The innkeeper's huge bread oven in front of the inn had already been taken over by the legion's cooks. Colossal amounts of bread were being prepared on the inn's outside tables, and almost as much as was being prepared had already been put in the oven to bake. The smell of bread was so strong that it even reached the noses that were still in the village across the bridge.

  The innkeeper buzzed from one legionary cook to the next, helping, checking, sweating.

  "Beds for the commander of the legion and his escort have been prepared in the inn downstairs. The rooms upstairs are too small, and the beds are not as comfortable," said Matlas as he walked to Aris whom he had recognized after watching how the rest of the men greeted him.

  "This way," said Matlas loudly, trying to overpower the voices coming from all around.

  "Here, please! Lunch is inside. We were expecting you," he controlled his voice now that he stood close to Aris. He let Aris pass by him into the inn, and then he turned to greet Aris's escort in the same way.

  "You were here yesterday!" he shouted when he spotted the dragon approaching him and when he looked at Kerkio's and Dion's faces better.

  "Why didn't you say were men of importance?" the innkeeper asked. He looked worried and tried to remember how he had treated them while he waited for their answer.

  "Because we are not," answered Dion, and Kerkio laughed at the even greater pain that appeared on the innkeeper's face, but that answer only momentarily hampered the innkeeper's hospitality.

  He led them into the inn and sat them at a long table to the left of the entrance. The table had already been set and was patiently awaiting its guests. Matlas himself poured each of them some meat and vegetable broth, and to each gave an entire small corn bread whose skin was oily and in some places burned to black.

  There was no talk at the table, and everyone started eating as soon as their plate was filled. Dion scooped some of the broth with the spoon but noticed that he could not bring it to his mouth without spilling half of it back into the plate.

  "What is wrong?" asked Eya who noticed first what was happening.

  "Hungry. Tired. I think that is all," he answered, still trying to outsmart his shaky arm, bending ever closer to the plate, probably more than good manners would allow.

  "Allow me," she said when she got off the bench and bent across the table. Dion sat upright and Eya put her palm on his forehead. She kept it there for a breath or two and then moved her arm so she could double check with her forearm. Dion closed his eyes when the soft skin of her forearm slid over his forehead.

  "He has a fever," she said and sat back to her place. Dion opened his eyes when she was already sitting. He found it hard to open them, and the he checked his forehead for himself.

  "The lake," said Kerkio silently and with a sigh. "I hoped it would not get you sick, but better that you are sick than..." He decided that it was better to continue eating than finishing that sentence.

  "We'll find a place for you in one of the wagons," said Aris between mouthfuls. "No sense in you riding or walking to Tialoch if you're ill."

  "I'm not feeling that unwell," replied Dion, and then called Matlas who was on his way towards the unknown depths of the inn from which he constantly brought food out.

  "Have you any healthful herbs in stock?" he asked the innkeeper.

  "I have some. Lemon balm, chamomile, lavender from Phares, thousand-leaf."

  "Yes, thousand-leaf. I think that and lemon balm is what I need for the fever, and I'll be good to ride tomorrow. The only problem I have is that I cannot remember the exact amount I need."

  "You need as much as you can scoop up with three fingers of mint, an equal scoop of thousand-leaf, and then just a little touch of pelin, as much as you can shyly pinch with two fingers. Of course, you need enough hot water to make your infusion."

  "Pelin?" asked the innkeeper.

  Dion smiled, but not because he remembered Pelin Tai.

  "I thought you did not know a word of the old language," he said to Eya.

  Eya shook her head.

  "I don't."

  "The herb pelin is known here and in other weird places as wormwood."

  "Wormwood. That I have someplace," said the innkeeper, and also gave Dion a frown for the "weird places" remark.

  "I speak what I know," Dion explained himself, "but I will correct my herbalism knowledge. Thank you both."

  "Show me," said Eya to the innkeeper. "It will be best if I prepared the infusion for you. Then you will be ready to ride tomorrow and ready for the task that was given to you."

  "She sounds serious," said Aris after Eya and the innkeeper had left.

  "And she acts in the same way," added Kerkio.

  "Phares has come," said a legionary who appeared at the inn's entrance.

  "How many?"

  "Two hundred archers with two hundred of their helpers, and the wagon column stretches to the end of the village and beyond. I couldn't see where it ends."

  "Thank you Jor," said Aris as he got up from the table.

  "Lyudov ot moryogroda," said the dragon when he looked out into the yard.

  "Ada," confirmed Dion, but the dragon seemed unimpressed and returned to the food at the table.

  "They asked to speak to you," continued the legionary to Aris. "They had seen something strange on their way here but they only wish to speak to you about it."

  Dion suddenly turned towards the legionary, as if poked in the back. He was sure this could have been only her.

  "Let's go," he said and scrambled off the bench to his feet.

  "Zmai, Roga!" he said as he ran out after Aris and Kerkio, and immediately after that he heard the table scraping on stone as the dragon pushed it away to get out of the inn.

  The column from Phares did not stop at the inn but continued east, and by the time Dion and the others reached the road, the Pharesian archers had already passed by the inn and the eastern field where the legion was setting up camp.

  Two massive dark work horses then crossed the bridge over the Barda, dragging a huge wagon covered with leather so that no eye could see its contents and no raindrops could enter it, but Dion was sure he knew what was inside. The bows, strings, and all of their equipment was inside, and the wagon was followed by the archers' helpers - young men who helped and learned from the already established Pharesian archers.

  "Commander," the leader of the Pharesian archers greeted Aris.

  "Rochus," he introduced himself and shook hands with Aris.

  "Our concert with Jor is to continue down the Pharesia until we reach the Wilderness. There we will set up our camp - approximately halfway to Tialoch. We'll have food ready for you by the time you get there, but we will not wait for you. We will go to Tialoch in front of you and wait for you there. Then it is up to you and the king."

  "The men will be in good spirit when they reach Tialoch because of you. Thank you," answered Aris and nodded.

  "You sent for me because you had some strange news for me?" he continued.

  "Yes, we found something near the crossroads that leads to Eborum. Our dogs smelled what turned out to be a corpse of an extremely large bird."

  "So she really was at the lake," said Kerkio to Dion.

  "The bird was larger than a horse when it was alive but I can
not be sure. It looked as if a pack of wolves had torn it apart, except there was no blood on the grass around it."

  "Have you seen a woman next to it, or something resembling a woman or parts of a human body?" asked Dion, not at all calmly.

  "We saw no one or nothing else, neither dead nor living."

  "Thank you," said Aris in an effort to take control of the conversation. "You may join your men now. We'll talk again in Tialoch."

  Rochus left without hesitation to rejoin his men.

  "Lyud?" the dragon called him, wanting to know what was all that talk about.

  "We should go and find her. Where are our horses?" asked Dion, but Aris would not allow him.

  "You are certainly not going anywhere, and there is no need. Eborum is already completely closed, you heard that from one of their own, and this here is the only road that can take her to Tialoch. She cannot reach the city before us and warn them of our arrival. I know what worries you."

  "So she must be hiding in the Pharesian column," said Dion and at once glanced nervously at the wagons and the people who had already crossed the bridge. There were quite a few female faces among them, but none was even close to being of Roga's age.

  "Check every man, woman and wagon that crosses the bridge, if you want to," Aris told him. "But do it discretely. I don't want it to look like we are counting the wagons or checking what they bring. It would be disrespectful."

  Dion and Kerkio quickly found themselves two stools to sit on in the yard, at the edge of the estate's busy eastern field. The dragon wanted to stay at the bridge, and they agreed - if anyone could recognize Roga, it was him.

  "It took me a while to find you," said Eya when she appeared next to them. "I made a cup for each one of us. Drink yours, Kerkio, even if you're feeling well. It won't harm you," she finished and handed them two large mugs of hot water covered with a layer of dry herbs floating just beneath the surface.

  "What are you doing out here?" she asked as they sipped her rejuvenating potion.

  "Trying to see if Roga is hiding in one of the wagons," replied Dion, quickly returning his attention to the road to be sure he missed nothing.

  "I am no use to you for that task," she said shortly after. "I'd like to be alone for a while and ponder about my own task," she added.

  "All right," said Dion as he looked at the lines on her face, trying to decipher what he could through slightly misty eyes.

  "You should not be here. You're not feeling well. Go rest, " she said and then ran across the road in front of one of the Pharesian donkeys.

  ✽✽✽

  Dusk had already come when the last wagons from Phares crossed over the bridge.

  "In a way I'm glad that there are no more wagons," said Dion. "At least we know that she isn't here, but I hope that our paths will cross once more."

  "They will, but the only path I look forward to now is the path to a bed," replied Kerkio, but stopped speaking to yawn quite loudly. "You look a bit better than before, but you still don't look good. We wait for whatever it is that they are starting to serve and then we rest?"

  Dion nodded and smiled when his eyes fell upon Meden Tai who sat in front of his tent, at the western edge of the field, right next to the inn's stone yard.

  "Ugh, this smells like the sweat underneath a granny's tit," complained the injured Meden about the food that was pushed into his arms a bit too carelessly by the innkeeper's young son.

  The others were already eating but his comment made them smell the food once more.

  "Meden!" yelled a few of the legionaries from his tent and from two neighboring ones, laughing uncontrollably while the thin broth spilled between their teeth and out of their mouth back into their bowls.

  "Meden? Where have you been to?" the laughter continued.

  "And what have you been up to?" asked a legionary sitting in the grass across from Meden.

  "And with whom?" added another teary-eyed one, choking and coughing.

  Meden's upper lip only trembled at first, half from subdued laughter, half from shame.

  "Granny boy!" another one shouted intentionally loudly, and then even Meden himself began laughing out loud, stopped for a moment to hold his aching ribs, and then continued laughing.

  "What's wrong with it?" asked the innkeeper's son who saw that the food was being wasted but wasn't paying much attention to what the legionaries had been saying to Meden.

  "My grandmother cooked this," the innkeeper's son explained.

  Almost the entire field next to inn was engulfed in sudden and utmost silence. Bowls flew in the air, and what food wasn't spilled already was spilled then. Along with the food, the legionaries fell to the ground, holding their bellies, laughing their lungs out. Even Meden turned to look at the innkeeper's son in wonder, and then shook his head in disbelief and wiped his tears away.

  The innkeeper's son snorted, poured more food for the crazy southerners, and then went on his way between tents, and was followed by laughter and the sound of spoons scraping on the bottoms of the bowls.

  "Time to go," said Kerkio when the teardrops that soaked his eyelashes cooled enough for him to notice them.

  "Zmai? Hodysh sah nami uv hostinica?"

  Dion wanted to know if the dragon wanted to accompany them into the inn, but Zmai refused. The fast flowing mountain river Barda looked much more appealing to the dragon, so he shook his head and jumped from the bridge into it.

  Dion and Kerkio were still smiling when they entered the inn and they found Aris and several primaries silently conversing at the table on the left side of the inn.

  "I was about to go looking for you," said Aris and interrupted his table conversation for a moment. "Tomorrow we wake early," he said and pointed to the right of the inn where tables had been removed and beds had been prepared for them.

  Dion's bag was on one of the beds, and so were the ravens. They too were served both food and water, and seemed pretty content with what they've been given.

  Kerkio took the bed closer to the door, and they left the bed closest to the fireplace to Eya.

  Dion tried to focus on Aris's voice but he could not discern any specific words. Soon even Aris stopped speaking to the primaries and went to bed. The only sound that was left in the inn was the crackling of the fire, and then even that faded away.

  ✽✽✽

  "Where... What time is it?" asked Dion when he woke up. He threw his legs over the side of the bed before even opening his eyes and then sat upright. The innkeeper and his entire family were already on their feet, and the innkeeper was busy carefully and silently adding more wood to the fire.

  "It is early morning, but it's not going to dawn just yet," replied the innkeeper and then the rooster that woke Dion up began crowing once again as if it had never seen a morning before.

  "It'll wake up the entire legion," complained Kerkio who bolted out of bed at the rooster's second crow.

  Eya was still sleeping, but Aris's bed was already empty, and there was no sign of the dragon inside. They went outside and found him in the yard, sleeping in front of the bread oven. He looked more like a large lump of mud than a dragon. Every scale on his body was muddied, and for reasons known only to him, he held a bundle of cattail in his mouth - muddy root, stalk and all.

  The rooster was sitting on the fence of the henhouse in the north-west corner of the yard and it was crowing once again.

  "Shut up!" hissed the innkeeper's son at the rooster.

  "I think he's afraid of the dragon," said Dion. "You should put him into the henhouse. He won't see Zmai then."

  The rooster resumed its crowing.

  "Horvoi, take the butter," said Matlas to his son from inside the inn.

  "I need two hands," the innkeeper's son said when he returned from the inn. "Take this and come with me," Horvoi said to Dion and gave him a lit torch and a small plate with a block of butter on it.

  The rooster noticed them and crowed even louder before he went silent and watched the two men approach him. The in
nkeeper's son was fast and trained, and before the rooster could even flutter his wings, he grabbed it by the neck and pulled him off the fence. The rooster tried to scratch him and to crow once more but failed to do both, and then Horvoi's fingers that grabbed some of the butter from the plate went under the rooster's tail.

  "What are you doing?" asked Dion, caught completely off guard, but it was already over. The innkeeper's son had already done what he intended to do and returned the surprised rooster onto the fence.

  There was silence again on Matlas's estate, but there wouldn't be if the rooster could do anything about it. It was opening his beak, fluttering its wings, trying to crow, but no sound came out it's open beak.

  "What did you do to it?" asked Dion. "Does it hurt?"

  "Not a bit," responded the innkeeper's son with a smile on his face. He enjoyed this moment because this was the first time his father allowed him to do that to that irritating rooster.

  "It can't crow anymore once you smear butter inside his hole. It can't clench anymore and can't crow."

  "You're joking!" said Dion in wonder, but a smile grew on his face nevertheless.

  "Well, look at it. It's in front of you."

  "Kerkio," said Dion, now smiling uncontrollably. "Come here. You have to see this."

  The sound of a horn coming from the eastern field stopped their merry laughter.

  "It looks like Aris wants us to start marching really early?" asked Dion.

  "It must be," replied Kerkio.

  ✽✽✽

  The legionaries were awake and stood in silence in front of their tents with their faces turned towards the road. They looked like stone statues illuminated by yellow light of torches in the thick fog.

  Aris was on the road, sitting on his horse.

  "Today will be a hard day," started Aris. "We have to get to Tialoch and be ready to fight there or continue marching to Mara. Maybe we will have to do both. It will be difficult, but the people from Phares are here to help us get to Tialoch quickly. Today you won't be packing your tents or building a camp later in the afternoon. They will do that for you. You only have to march."