by S. K Munt
‘Oh shut up,’ the courtesan snapped, flouncing off in a huff and leaving Sam with the last laugh- a fact I would have appreciated if I hadn’t been feeling so frazzled. The cold, the toxic fumes, the promise I’d just made to that awful woman… it was all almost too much to take!
I turned to Bastien pleadingly. ‘Will this hurt people? I don’t want anyone to get sick! Oh god, if I cost someone the chance to be a parent like… like…’ tears were forming in my eyes but Bastien shook his head and wiped them away.
‘You haven’t hurt anybody, sweetheart. You’d have to have the sap injected directly into your bloodstream for it to have any long-lasting effects, or breathe the smoke in for days in order for it to have any short-term ones, all right? No one here is going to end up barren because of you.’
‘Besides, if this part of the forest is as shallow as you claim it is, this fire will be out within an hour, so it won’t burn for long enough to endanger anyone anyway,’ Sam said, and I exhaled a little, nodding.
‘Okay,’ I said, feeling a bit better about the Devil’s Claw, but worse about the courtesan thing now that it was sinking in. ‘I trust you guys.’
‘Thank you.’ Bastien pulled me into his side and rubbed my shoulder again, but he’d obviously learned a lesson or two from how I’d reacted when he’d done that in the past, because he only embraced me for the briefest moment before pulling away. ‘So… are you ready to keep going?’
I wasn’t, but I did.
16.
The Wildlands
Larkin
After the Devil’s Claw trees had finished burning, everyone with a strong blade took to hacking away at the charred corpses that were left, and after only fifteen minutes we’d succeeded in doing two things: burying the tiny brook underneath our feet with slush, ash and scorched leaf litter... and carving a path right through that thin section of the forest and to the larger brook that was waiting for us on the other side- one that snaked a path through a grove of trees and uphill to where I suspected the river I’d seen was waiting.
There were exclamations of shock and awe as everybody damn near stampeded me in their rush to see what our hard work had revealed, and even though I’d already glimpsed it from the sky, I had to admit that I felt a stirring of excitement within my heart when I too got to slip under the thick canopy of trees and into what could only be described as a natural tunnel through the centre of that inhospitable forest. Maybe it wasn’t the path that I’d always imagined finding, because that one had supposedly fed into the north-eastern part of Arcadia and this one ran off into a cove one hundred kilometres northwest of it... but it was better than no path at all and I was certain that I was meant to follow it.
‘Impressive,’ Sam had said, pulling on my braid when I caught up to him, but not taking his eye off the point where the brook slipped into the shadowy growth before us and doubled in width making it about a metre and a half wide. ‘It’s not the Nile, or anything, and I think I’ve actually taken pisses with more cubic metres of moisture than that… but it’s a start, isn’t it?’
I nodded, immensely relieved that he couldn’t read my mind now that Siria had given me a tiny ring of amber to wear too, and see how pleased I was with my ‘pissy’ little discovery. It was a small stream in every sense of the word- only a few metres thick at its broadest points, but the trees that surrounded it shielded us from the wind and that was important. It was very shallow but the water flowed rather quickly over a bed of icy rocks that were still more brown and green than white, and although I knew that our boots would get wet and that the entire route would be a slippery one, walking on those stones was going to be a lot less exhausting than trudging through thigh-high snow so long as I got the chance to dry out everyone’s socks by a fire at some point.
‘Come on, Liberty!’ someone shouted from ahead, making me cringe and Sam laugh. ‘Destiny’s a-waitin’ as are we- for you to get back in the lead where you belong!’
I blushed hotly as Sam needled me about the Liberty moniker, but I drew my sword and hurried forward, motivated not by my need to impress anyone anymore or to prove my worth- but to discover. Like the aspiring explorer that he was, Serif made a point to stay right on my heels the whole time, while Martya stayed behind him, relaying everything that I was doing back down the line so any abrupt stops that I came to wouldn’t result in everyone behind us slamming into one another.
The trees that lined that brook were healthier than the rest of the forest, which caused them to be a bit taller and more imposing, but the branches of the Devil’s Claw in there weren’t completely petrified yet so every time I encountered one of the lower-hanging ones, I used my blade to slice them out of our way to save people taller than me from getting stabbed by the barbs. Sometimes the canopy made by those branches was so low that we had to walk in a squat for up to ten minutes at a time and sometimes I had to hack away at the branches for a good twenty minutes to save us from having to slither beneath them on our bellies, so the result was that we moved much more slowly than usual, but carefully and safely and with a lot less exertion. My left arm was too sore from where I’d sprained my wing to even lift the axe, but my right was strong and the axe was sharp, so I sort of enjoyed that bit of grunt work, if for no other fact than because it was keeping me warm.
But eventually the route became easier and therefore, rather monotonous and it didn’t take long for my claustrophobia to reinstate itself. I knew that everyone else was going a bit batty from the monotony of the hike once the novelty had worn off, because people started snapping at one another about watching where they stepped or moving faster and begging for a rest (the sleighs couldn’t be dragged over the rocks so all of the kids that were too heavy to be carried were being forced to walk while a few disgruntled adults were being forced to carry the sleighs) and though I desperately wanted to give them the chance to sit down and have a snack, the issue was that there was nowhere to do that because there was no bank on either side of us- just clumps of exposed, submerged and twisted tree roots so sitting without getting soaked wasn’t an option.
I was really feeling the cold in there too, and I felt sorry for the people who were complaining about water leaking into their shoes, but there was nothing to be done about it. My boots were still dry because Satan had obviously given me the best ones that she could summon up, but I’d been wearing them for days and my pinkie toes were starting to feel rubbed raw, even under my thick socks. I wanted to wear my cloak but I was too short and it was a bit too long for me and so I’d stuffed it into the rucksack I had slung over my shoulder (it belonged to one of the men carrying a sleigh) and suffered without it instead of getting the lower half of it soaked. That was all right though, because the act of clearing our path kept me from stiffening up completely for the entire three-hour duration of that trek.
We just have to keep going! I thought, cheering myself silently when I felt blisters developing on my poor, icy feet. There’s a river up there somewhere, I know it!
Eventually Martya caught up to me and started babbling about forest stuff while Sam, Serif and I listened quietly, and although Serif’s eyes glazed over pretty quickly, Martya’s prattling kept my paranoia about possibly killing everyone at bay. She explained how moss worked and how I could use that knowledge to my advantage, and pointed out the bends in the tree branches high above our head so that she could demonstrate that south-westerly’s blew through the region more than any other kind of winds did. After that, she went on to explain about how she could tell fox droppings apart from the wolves’ and the bear’s ones.
‘It all just looks like shit to me,’ Sam remarked, looking disgusted by us both for leaning over to inspect a fox’s droppings.
‘That’s because you don’t have a soul,’ Martya said flippantly, standing up again and prodding me along as I cracked up laughing. ‘When you get it back, you’ll remember how wondrous nature can be.’
Sam didn’t have a response for that and he even went as ruby-red as his hair, whic
h made me fall in love with Martya all over again. I’d forgotten how witty she could be!
Everyone did what they could to stay dry, but eventually the water got deeper and so people’s skirts, pant-legs, cloaks and shoes starting getting waterlogged, which made them all heavier, colder and less pleasant to be around. I was faring better thanks to my inner warmth, but by the time the stream began to slant uphill and the sounds of running water could be heard emanating from above, the rest of my traveling party had blue lips and chattering teeth, which terrified me. Then, actual ice started drifting past us and that was when the complaining and bickering started. I’d had their faith all morning, but by the time we had all scrambled up a small, half-frozen waterfall and onto open ground again, I was fairly certain that they wanted to toss me into the river that was rushing past us as a human sacrifice to the God that they had forsaken.
Oh my God! I thought, rejoicing by myself as everybody else collapsed in exhaustion. We’d emerged not only out of the forest, but onto a wide riverbank that acted as a thin but solid boundary line between it and the river beside me. That’s not just a river, it’s a canyon!
And it was true. Though the right half of the world fell away from us into a deep ravine that became a carpet of treetops that seemed to stretch all the way to the mountain range on the eastern horizon, it was impossible to see anything to our left beyond the river that was hurtling past us at a cracking pace and the massive canyon wall that loomed up behind it.
That canyon wall dwarfed us- it had to be at least eighty feet high at that point alone, and though I knew that the coast was on the other side of it, I didn’t know how far away that other side was because I couldn’t even see all the way to the top of it from there. Nonetheless, I didn’t need to know what was up there to appreciate it- it blocked all of the north westerly winds and seemed to go on doing so for a long way yet, as did the land bridge beneath us- and that meant that my path had just become a highway.
‘Th-this is a-m-m-m-’
‘I know,’ I said to Sam, pleased that at least one person was happy with the progress we’d made, I hugged myself and began walking over to the larger clearing ahead of us, which appeared to be a frozen over delta of sorts and the point at which the river had broken free of its banks and rushed over into the forest, creating the stream that we’d just scurried through. There were sticks and other kinds of debris matted around the edges, and even though they were obviously damp or coated with ice, I was determined to get a bonfire going with them so that I could defrost my poor followers in kind. ‘And I’ll bet you any money that this leads down into the cove.’
‘I don’t have any m-money-’
‘Oh stop trying to talk,’ I teased him, earning myself a look of irritation. ‘Just let me read your mind for once: Wow! That Larkin, she’s so amazing! How can she be Satan’s gift, when she seems like God’s?’
‘It’s got something to d-do with your t-tits, I think-’
‘Oh shut up,’ I said, picking up a long piece of driftwood and swatting him with it, but I smiled because I was the only one that could and I figured that Satan would appreciate the token of gratitude. And once other people worked out what I was doing, the ones that could move started rustling up anything that would burn too.
The river was deep, and I wouldn’t have been able to stretch down and touch the surface of the white water even with someone holding onto my feet, but it had become dammed up near the delta by rocks and debris, causing the run-off down into the forest canopy which looked like little more than a splash of thin, frozen ice with some water still sliding over the top of it and down into the ravine. Martya said that although it would freeze over completely soon enough, it probably ran a lot stronger there during the warmer months, as the river beside it did, so we could probably count on it being there again this time next year, even if it was destined to be covered by snow again soon. She also agreed that the canyon wall appeared to lead all the way back to the cove behind us, but to my excitement, she estimated that it went on for a lot further ahead- possibly all the way to the unnamed mountains in the distance that I’d seen on Bastien’s map.
And if it led to those mountains, then there was a very good chance that it would lead to a valley too- maybe even one with a lake.
Cheered by that thought, I huffed and puffed until I got the bonfire going, stood next to it for just enough for the numbness to be leeched out of my limbs, and then took flight while everyone else tried to cook the foil-wrapped packages of damper that Lady Lucida had prepared in advance for the trip. The smell of the dough cooking made my stomach rumble, but the thrill of discovery made my heart skip a beat and that overwhelmed my hunger. It was freezing up there because we were at a higher altitude again, and the breeze that swept along the top of the river was so intense that it was hard to keep control of my wings, but as soon as I’d leapt into the air I was being sucked downstream so rapidly that I couldn’t have stopped if I’d tried.
It had taken three and a half hours to trudge along the path before it had connected to the river that run parallel to it, but I was only airborne for just under two, terrifying minutes before I was spat out into the cove near The Factory again, back where we’d started. I was almost sent hurtling headfirst into a rock wall when it veered out sharply and suddenly at the very end of that long canyon, but the wind knew where it was going and it took me with it confidently.
I exploded out of the narrow gap that the river was ploughing through and was instantly terrified that I was going to be splattered against the southern wall as I had been earlier, but I resisted the urge to try and pull up sharply for fear that I would aggravate the muscles in my back again and thankfully, a crosswind broke the initial wind’s hold on me. When it was safe to do so, I spun around to face the gap that I’d just exited from, was delighted to see that it was barely discernible from there, just as it had been earlier when I’d glimpsed it the first time. In fact, both the coastal and inland entrances to that tumultuous cove were well concealed, because the rocky walls that framed both were angled sharply. So it was no wonder that ships- pirate or Arcadian- had never been able to find this place before- it was one of the North’s many well-guarded secrets!
I didn’t know if a ship would ever be able to pass along the inland river given how choppy the water was and how much debris was being rocketed along it, but it would serve me just fine as far as navigation was concerned, because so long as I kept it in sight, I’d always know how to get back to The Factory, and that was all I really needed to know before I forged on- that if anyone started to die on me, I might be able to fly them back to food, warmth and shelter before it was too late.
Food, warmth, shelter… and Gigi’s corpse.
Once I was satisfied with my little exploration, I tried to fly up above the canyon wall so I could get a better idea about how the coast was shaped and what waited for me above it but unfortunately, the storm was starting to droop over the atmosphere by then, and the gale-force winds that were whipping up in the thick of it were much too fierce for me to fly into let alone, against. I had only just managed to get a glimpse of yet another forest of Devil’s Claw on top of the headlands when the air clouded around me again, so in the interest of not pushing my luck, I quickly veered out over the forest that we’d just tunnelled through and coasted over it until I saw the fire that I’d made for my followers.
By the time I descended back out our makeshift camp, I was more than exhausted and frozen solid, but everyone was in better cheer by then and so they took care of me- bundling me up in the furs that they’d started drying by the fire and force-feeding me damper that melted in my mouth. Sam, Papyrus, Serif and Windsor started building more fires because the one we had wasn’t big enough to keep everyone warm, but before they could light them I summoned up my own heat and send it scorching through the air, using my mind to shape a trail for it to follow that would cause it to ignite all of them. In the blink of an eye and a held breath, five fires exploded to life around us, and ch
eers filled the air as smoke did as The Sequestered defrosted at last.
Not against Satan, not yet- but they were certainly warming up to me.
*
By noon everyone’s clothes had dried out and the winds were beginning to make the smoke from the fires waft sideways, so I reluctantly got to my feet and handed baby Larkin back to her mother, assuring her that she was as warm as could be and that I would take her back the moment her skin grew cool again. Vanessa, her mother, thanked me repeatedly for having nursed her while we’d waited, but when she told me that I’d make a beautiful mother one day, I felt my heart sink.
‘They don’t understand,’ Lady Lucida said softly, coming around to speak to me under the pretence of warming her hands by the fire after Vanessa had bustled off. ‘Because the elixir that is given out among the unmarried masses is only a temporary contraceptive, they assume that that we’ve had the same thing. Only the men that frequent harems know otherwise, and even some of them remain unenlightened.’
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to have to talk to this woman yet, but my curiosity got the better of me and forced me to respond: ‘You’ve obviously had yours in for more than fifteen years, so does that mean that you’re able to-’
‘No,’ she said, but she seemed no more depressed about that fact than she had been moved by my abhorrence to her profession. ‘It should have stopped working quite a while ago, but I haven’t had a blossom bleed yet, even though I’ve shown no signs of going though menopause either. I’ve heard some rumours about it wearing off- even from one girl that cut hers out of herself as I’m told that you did- but though she started bleeding about seven years later, all of the pregnancies she had afterwards dissolved before she’d even started showing, and it turned out that her womb had withered like a raisin inside her in the short three years that it had been poisoned for.’