Thesila Prophecy - The Journey Home

by Robert Rumble

  Only Mashaun really knows the entire story, and having the owner’s certificate for the twins, he hopes it will offer some safety for the group. Mai has asked a few times what had happened, but he refuses to tell her for her safety, and after hearing the story, he is glad that no one else knows.

  That evening, Mashaun leaves camp to practice with the swords. After a short time, one of the city guards catches him and offers to spar. Introducing himself as Cyngir, Mashaun is grateful and the two begin with slow movements. Within seconds, Cyngir realizes that Mashaun has no idea what he is doing. Wilmer, watches from a distance, before offering Mashaun a demonstration on how to use two swords. Cyngir and Wilmer spar at full speed, as a crowd gathers to watch the action. After each short burst of action, Wilmer asks Mashaun questions about what he saw. Teaching him that with two swords you don’t block, but channel their force away, leaving your a free hand to strike.

  The next day, when the caravan stops for lunch, Wilmer points to a mesa on the horizon, telling Mashaun that it is Shen Sherin. Wilmer tells Mashaun that it is too far away to make it by night. Instead, they will have to spend the night at the Arnbor stronghold. It’s fortress for merchants, which is a short day’s journey from Shen Sherin. It can hold and protect a dozen caravans if needed. Every merchant pays to help maintain the fortress and the garrison housed there. By early afternoon, a circular palisade comes into view, towering above the large clearing.

  It has a fifteen-foot wood wall with a walkway along the top for guards. The fortification also has several wooden towers located around the perimeter, with a ballista in each. By the main gate is a small wooden building, a short round man guards the entrance. Pavvo and the city guard captain speak to him for a short time before showing him a metal disk. The wooden gate opens, and they enter into the protection of the fort. Inside stands a two-story building next to the gate that has a meal area and barracks for the guards. Wilmer tells Mashaun that the city guards that patrol the road spend a month at a time here before rotating back to the city.

  By nightfall, several other caravans enter the enclosure and set up camp. Most of the caravans are empty and use Arnbor during the winter to store their wagons. Several are heading south, and the merchants have dinner with Pavvo. Wilmer tells them that a few years ago, this place would be overflowing with caravans, but it has died down because of the increased attacks. After they set up camp, Mai helps the twins cover the leather bands with a cloth to hide their identity. They may not dress the part of a slave, but there is no hiding their slave-like mannerisms.

  Some of the caravan guards are longtime friends, and they’re laughter and merrymaking lasting well into the night, something the group has not heard since they arriving in the cave. Even Mai, Berg, Abigail, Kazimir, and the twins join in the festivities. A guard from another caravan grabs Ericka, and as she is struggling to get away, Max intercedes, and she hides behind him. The two men talk for a while before Max points to Kazimir.

  Seeing an opportunity, Max looks at Ericka and asks her about when they first met. At first, she just stares at him blankly, and then she understands and approvingly nods. Max arranges a friendly fight with Kazimir. Mai hurries to get Mashaun as the bets fly. Pavvo’s guards see this as a chance to get their money back, increasing the stakes. Berg starts taking the bets before asking Mashaun about covering them, but Mashaun just nods his head affirmatively while he watches from the sidelines. There are lots of greens and yellows, with even a few blue thrown in to sweeten the pot. There isn’t enough money in the pool, and if Kazimir loses, there could be problems again. Some of the merchants even bet on the bout, including Pavvo, who places a large bet on Kazimir.

  The two opponents square off in the large circle, both looking determined to win. Kazimir’s opponent is taller, has the same build, and is several years younger. Kazimir goes down early in the match, surprising him, and scaring Ericka. His opponent tries to stomp on Kazimir’s head, missing, as Kazimir manages to get back up on his feet. They go after each other like two juggernauts, each taking turns briefly being in the dirt. After a time, the two tired warriors just circle, waiting for the other to make a move, when someone throws a dagger in the center of the circle, followed by a second dagger from the other side.

  The two men circle the knives, each attempting to get one, only to fail time and time again. Eventually, Kazimir’s opponent gets one knife and kicks the other out of the circle, almost hitting someone. Feeling more confident with the knife, he attacks. Kazimir reads his move and blocks the knife with his arm while pivoting around, catching his opponent in the side of the face with his elbow, sending him stumbling across the circle. Before he can regain his bearings, Kazimir is on him. With a couple of fast blows to the midsection and a knee in the face, his opponent goes down. Everybody watches to see what the guy on the ground is going to do next. Some, yelling at him to get up, others, stay down, and eventually, he waves his hand for no more.

  Kazimir helps the man up, and they both hobble over to a makeshift table, leaving a trail of blood droplets behind them. Mai joins them at the table to patch them both up, shaking her head. She does not understand the need to fight, let alone for fun. Both love the feel of her soothing touch as she wipes the blood from their faces. The man reaches for her arm, but she pulls away before he can grab her. Kazimir shakes his finger and points to Mashaun, and the guy looks at her, then him, and nods. Someone brings both of them a large mug of ale, and they sit there drinking long after Mai leaves.

  The rest of the night, people walk up to them and usually thank them for making them some extra money or for a good fight. Once, several drunks from the different caravans walk up to them and start harassing them. Kazimir still understands a little of what they are saying. The two start to stand as several of the guards intervene, sending the drunks on their way as they turn and give the two men a thumbs-up for a good match.

  Berg takes the winnings and gives them to Mashaun since he has all the party’s money. The money pouch is getting heavy, and he doesn’t feel safe walking around with so many marbles. He finds Pavvo, who is collecting his winnings, and asks if he would help keep the party funds safe. Pavvo is more than happy to help, except he only has one lockbox, so the two of them count the money with Mai and Axtel watching. Mai’s eyes get big when she realizes how much the party funds have grown from nothing in the cave, even though she has no idea the value of each. Pavvo fills out two receipts, and everybody there signs them. Pavvo says he will put one in the lockbox with the money, and Mashaun is to keep the other one. On the way back to the group, he gives the receipt to Mai and asks her to keep it safe, as he disappears into the darkness, like usual.

  Mashaun strolls the wall, staring at the silhouette of the city in the moonlight, wondering about the stories of Magdalenia. Mashaun considers the possibilities of dealing with the twins and Magdalenia in the city, knowing that it is all speculation. He thinks back to his other life in the city and how life there was much simpler compared to the one here. Gazing into the night sky as he often does, pretending to look for a familiar constellation, giving him time to ponder about his new life, still unsure whether it is a dream or another world. He was always the quiet one, sitting in a room, observing while not being noticed, but it was different here. People look up to him, and his words and deeds affect others, and that overwhelms him. Dalistra remains silent as she listens to his thoughts, feeling a little sad for him. She remembers her father saying that leaders are not from birthrights but arise from chaos. She didn’t understand what he meant, until now.

  Snapping back, he remembers that Pavvo said that this is the end of the season and that he wouldn’t leave again until the spring, offering him and Mai a position with his house. He hasn’t told her yet, wondering if Kazimir and the others received a similar offer, and he hopes that they did. He is tired of them looking up to him but enjoys it too.

  He strolls the walls for hours and on occasion striking up a short conversation with one of the guards, using Dalistra t
o translate. Mashaun keeps to himself most of the time, sometimes talking with Dalistra about the city and Pavvo’s offer. Dalistra likes the offer but is open to just going places. “Anywhere is fine after being locked away in the vault for eons.” What she doesn’t tell Mashaun is that she has a vendetta and is looking for someone. He is her only means of finding that person or persons and when she does, he will extract her revenge.

  They leave by sun up the next morning, even though most are not thrilled about an early morning after the late night before, many still feeling the buzz from too much alcohol. Shen Sherin castle looms over the countryside atop a mesa, protected by the sea on two sides and a group of islands on one side with a wide river that snakes through the countryside between them and the castle. Log buildings rest on pillars three feet or so above the muck and the earth. The logs have two sides planned to fit flush next to each other on the smaller buildings, while the larger ones have a patchwork of log squares five feet across. Start to populate the landscape as they approach a stone bridge that stretches across the river in multiple spans. A variety of shops and inns nestled among tall buildings of rock and trees with thatched roofs lines the road, extending into the cleared forest. The townsfolk scurry about like ants as the caravan passes. Every so often, one of the townsfolk approaches the guards, trying to sell their wares, who brush them aside like a pesky fly. The buildings look run-down, as do the people with hopeless eyes watching the caravan rumble down the road past them, oblivious to their plight.

  Growing up in a small village, Kazimir identifies with the situations, and Berg’s childhood was worse than what he sees. Both of the men found a way out of the poor neighborhoods—one by strength, the other with his brain. Mashaun has seen similar scenes in and around different cities and feels sorry for them as he walks through the town. Mai and Abigail have only seen people like this on television and watch the people trudge through the mud with empty eyes, wishing that they could do something to help. The sound of falling water grows louder as they approach the river, and they ask one of the guards about it, who tells them it is low tide, which doesn’t make any sense.

  In the middle of town is the only bridge across the river Sherin, which is over fifty feet wide at its narrowest point. The arch-type rock bridge has two gatehouses, one on each end with a wooden section with a collapsible middle if needed. Across the bridge, the town spreads out haphazardly with a four-way intersection in the middle. The castle lies to the left. On the right, the Dragon Spine Mountain Range towers in the distance over the trees. Straight ahead, the road continues through the fields before disappearing into a forest of evergreens and deciduous trees.

  The caravan turns toward the castle, which sits on the furthest island of a network of islands, each protected by a gatehouse and drawbridge, in addition to a major guardhouse. They arrive at the city entrance in the afternoon. Across a sixty-foot stone bridge that is eight horses wide are three barbicans, the drawbridge to the first island is a large gatehouse with a forty-foot-high wall around the circumference of the island. Barnacles and moss cover the bottom twenty feet, a current flowing up-river as the tidewater rises.

  “I’ve never seen a wall that tall, it must be ten to fifteen meters tall,” Mai says in awe.

  The gatehouse and the walls are solid stone, without any seams, brick or mortar looking like it is grown. Passing through the first gate that sits at one end of the island, they see a second slightly smaller gate at the other end. When both gates are closed, it creates a box-trap and whoever is in the middle is at the mercy of the archers.

  The gate guards make everybody, except for the city guards walk through two-crystal rock pillars about ten feet tall with runes written on them. The guard wearing a chain with a blue tunic speaks to everybody as they approach the pillars. When Wilmer and Axtel go between the pillars, their weapons show a light green aura. When Pavvo goes through, his tunic has a blue aura, a couple rings have a yellow aura, and his dagger has a salmon aura. Upon seeing this, Dalistra tries to talk Mashaun into staying in the village and not entering the city. She tells him that the two columns detect magic, and every type of magic glows a different color. It is used so the city knows who has magic, what kind, and the potency of the magic. The problem is that everybody around can also see who has magic, type, and strength.

  The guard stops Mashaun just before the pillars and asks about any magic. He is unsure how to answer, feeling everybody’s eyes on him when he does not answer right away. Finally, he tells the guard he doesn’t know and the guard tells him to walk between the crystals. Dalistra has a deep crimson aura as he passes between the pillars, and everybody stares at him, as time itself seems to stand still. Most look on with curiosity some with fright as others back away. A red glow is rare but one that deep is almost unique and most have never see an aura that shade. Mashaun looks around at swords half-drawn and notched arrows aiming at him, afraid to twitch, waiting for something to happen.

  Another guard comes out of a door and asks if he is going to cause any trouble; fortunately, Dalistra translates, and Mashaun timidly shakes his head, telling them tzsjs. The guard tells the men to stand down and has Mashaun follow him, which he does without hesitation. Pavvo tries to follow, but a couple of large swordsmen stop him at the door. After a brief conversation with the captain and the exchange of jade, they allow him to enter. The room has four well-armed swordsmen, one in each corner. Their swords in hand, ready for a fight. In the middle of the room is a small table with two chairs. On the table lies a parchment, which seems to be a registration form, wanting the owner’s name, the magic item(s) type, its color, how long he has had the magic item, where he acquired it, intended purpose in the city, and for how long, along with some other information. The only reason he can understand the parchment is Dalistra is able to translate for him.

  Pavvo tells him that they have not seen an unregistered red glow in ages, and most have never seen crimson. “Only spirit weapons glow that color, and your answer to the city guard, err. . . didn’t exactly help.” Pavvo tells him that in order to enter the city; he needs to fill out the form on the table. Mashaun does not want to give all the information out, so he decides to fill it out but plays ignorant on things like the weapon’s name and is vague on the where and when he had acquired Dalistra. After he fills out the form, one of the guards exits and returns a short time later with a woman. She has a square made of four smaller squares and places one of the smaller squares on the ground kitty-corner to the table on the ground. She moves counterclockwise, placing the second cube, creating a turquoise wall from cube to cube and to the ceiling. She continues until they are within a large cube. She sits in the chair across him, wearing a guard outfit but with a different symbol above the left breast. Her face is soft but stern. Her blue eyes are piercing; her coal-black hair tied in a bun on the back of her head. Dalistra is unusually quiet as she takes some time to read the form before speaking with a soft, stern tone, one that commands attention, even from Dalistra.

  “Just so you know they can’t hear us. I have seen other spirit weapons, devil swords, ego weapons, soul swords, whatever you want to call them. I also know that they won’t remain with a person for long if the two beliefs are too different. They will always require a blood test before allowing the person to use them. They always have a name, and they make sure that you know it.”

  Feeling trapped within the cubicle, he listens to her intently.

  “I’m Katherine, Captain of Munthiv and responsible for the safety of Shen Sherin. Now let make this as painless as possible. First, what is your name?” She sternly says.

  “Mashaun” He whispers with a tremble.

  “See, that wasn’t so hard, “Now what is the bow’s name?” she asks.

  Dalistra tells Mashaun not to say a word, but both know that won’t work.

  “I don’t know.”

  She repeats the part about spirit weapons’ names and their ego makes sure the wielder knows it.

  He says, “I can’t say.�
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  She stares at him for a short while before saying, “I don’t care what he is telling you, but you are going to tell me who the bow is.”

  “It’s not a he! It’s a she,” he blurts out before thinking. Dalistra gives him a disgusted feeling.

  “See, that wasn’t so hard now, was it.”

  “How can I address her properly if I don’t know her name?” she asks.

  “You can address her through me,” Mashaun quietly answers.

  “We’ll come back for her name in a bit. So where did you get her?” she asks.

  “Northeast of Tianjin,” he tells her. She just smiles and moves to the next question.

  “Why are you in my city?” she asks sternly.

  “I’m a scout for Pavvo’s caravan, the gentleman standing over there…” He realized that he couldn’t see out of the cube.

  She continues to question Mashaun for over an hour, sometimes rephrasing the same questions, looking for any deviation in his story. Eventually, he slips muttering Dalistra, and Katherine puts it down as the bow’s name. She makes him unstring Dalistra, telling him that the bow must remain unstrung while in the city. When Dalistra is unstrung, Mashaun notices the connection is broken and can’t feel her in his head.

  She picks up the four cubes and walks over to speak quietly to

  Pavvo, who nods affirmatively before saying something to one of the guards. While he is gone, Katherine asks Mashaun if she could hold the bow while they are waiting for his permit. Feeling that it might be a trap, he agrees anyway, handing Dalistra to her. She looks it over for some time, admiring the workmanship before gently handing it back, thanking

  Mashaun and Dalistra. She tells him that it is a rare treat to see, let alone hold such an item of beauty, workmanship from the Thesilan age.

  The guard returns, giving her a small metal disk. She tells Mashaun that he must return it when he leaves the city. It allows him to enter the main islands only, and he cannot take the bow on the inner islands. She continues telling him that he can only take it to Pavvo’s place if one of his people accompanies him. She hands the disk to him as he leaves the room. He understands a little of what she says. Pavvo fills him in on the rules of the city. Joined by a couple of his guards they walk to the Red Wagon Inn along.