Empire's Edge (Path of Light Book 2)

by N. A. Oberheide

  “What the hell kind of merchant are you? This is junk!”

  The driver nervously turned around.

  “I ain’t no merchant, sir, jus’ a traveler goin’ to see some family.”

  “Fucking great! Where’s the food?”

  “I ain’t got much ‘asides some booze an’ some—”

  “Fine, shut up! Stay quiet now and we’ll be gone soon.”

  Trevin collected up a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. He jumped off the back and motioned to Gully. They stole off into the woods with their haul, now armed with a scatter gun for their troubles. The bandit duo peeked back through the foliage and made sure they weren’t being followed. Sure enough, the now defenseless wagoners flogged their horses and fled as fast as their creaky wheels would carry them. The thieves made it back to their horses and sped off into the dusk, hoping to make up for some of the lost time with their meager haul.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Gettin’ a little saddle sore?”

  “Yeah, something like that.” He shifted uncomfortably again, now anxious that he was being so obvious about it.

  “Well don’t ya worry. We’ll be dismountin’ by the end o’ the day. We’re gonna make a stop off and actually have someplace decent to rest.”

  Yeah sure, then right back at it tomorrow on this trip to the middle of nowhere. Can’t wait… Naurus shifted again, and his skittish steed responded in kind by braying and tugging at the bit. Last night was an unpleasant night, between the biting bugs and the sounds of some large animal prowling around in the darkness, circling their campsite for what felt like an eternity. Rahlo seemed utterly unconcerned with such matters, but this was not something Naurus was comfortable with. Especially so far from home, in a land that was teeming with unfamiliar creatures and even stranger people. The fog in his brain cleared up a bit, and he remembered that he could pull the stirrup straps up to sit up higher in the saddle. This offered just enough relief to stop squirming, at least for now.

  They had come into noticeably less hilly terrain and the valleys between peaks were no more. Ahead lay gently rolling prairies dotted with farmsteads and flocks of grazing livestock. This was not home, not at all, and in fact he hadn’t seen a body of water in many days. The thoughts of escaping and getting away clean were increasingly a hazy dream as he started to realize there was no way of knowing which way would be best to go in that case. In defiance of how Rahlo’s schedule seemed to work, they didn’t stop for a meager lunch of jerky and whatever spirits he happened to be in the mood for. Instead, they trudged on with some urgency and ate in the saddle, much to Naurus’s chagrin.

  As day dragged onto evening, and as Rahlo’s uninvited monologues about the history of the land and his childhood in this ‘neck of the woods’ in his words wore on, there lay a little house on the prairie. Naurus payed it no mind, between the mind-numbing lack of scenery and the droll history lessons he was tuning out, he simply daydreamed about making it out of this mess alive.

  “Now where the hell you goin’? Get back ‘ere!”

  The prairie and its endless, entrancing seas of tall grasses and shrubs still held the foreigner captive. Something whistled past his ear with a sharp crack. Now his attention was turned. Turned around he did and saw Rahlo sitting with an annoyed expression and holding one of his revolvers.

  “Now get your ass back here or I ain’t missin’ next time!”

  So he reluctantly wheeled his horse around, who made no efforts to hide its hatred of its rider and bucked up before finally making the turn around. Rahlo had turned down a small side path and was partially hidden by the tall grasses that would have totally hid him if it weren’t for being on horseback. Naurus followed him and soon realized they were bearing straight for a log cabin homestead on a hillock.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere we can get us some good grub and get ya some sleep. You look like a damn coon with those baggy dark eyes!”

  Naurus took his word for it and simply awaited to see who’s homestead they were encroaching on. Nobody was outside, and no livestock were to be seen. This was a bit confusing, but he didn’t protest or ask anything else as they dismounted and made their way towards the old log house. A dog started barking. Naurus tensed up, then realized it was coming from inside the house. The rickety door swung open and a large brown dog came charging out towards them. He froze in place but Rahlo immediately embraced the clearly not so hostile dog. The dog then ran over to Naurus who realized it was much like the hunting retrievers they had back home, and it gave him some comfort to have something like that jumping all over him for no particular reason.

  “That there’s my sissy, she goes by Ruby.”

  Ruby circled around them as if herding them, but it mattered little as they made their way to the door and entered the house. Inside it was cool, a bit musty, but very well lived in. The walls were decorated with all matter of furs and tapestries. The floors were creaky as they were old, but it felt so much better than dirt and mud.

  “Gammy! I’m home!” Rahlo yelled out to a seemingly empty house.

  No one answered.

  “God damn Gammy going deaf. Gotta find her now.”

  That certainly didn’t take long, as they entered the adjacent room to see what looked like the corpse of an elderly woman slumped in a rocking chair. Rahlo stopped and hesitated, taking his hat off, before slowly making his way over to the elder in her linen gown. He gently nudged her. There was no response. Her mouth agape and her wrinkled face pallid, he shook her a bit harder. Still nothing. Ruby was panting and looking on intently. He leaned down and put his ear near her mouth. She suddenly lurched upright, wide awake. This startled Rahlo so badly he stumbled back and almost took out a hutch behind him. She glanced around the room with a warm yet blank look in her pale eyes.

  “Let me fix you some sammiches!” She said in a friendly drawl, getting up and starting to shuffle away.

  “Gammy, no! No sammiches!” Rahlo stepped over and gently took her by the arm.

  “Yes…let me fix you some sammiches. Growing young boys like you…” She trailed off, shuffling in place as Rahlo held fast.

  “No! Bad Gammy! Sit down! No sammiches!”

  He managed to get her to sit back down and before she could muster up a second wind he put a ball of yard and some crochet needles in her hands. She instantly focused on these new things in her lap as if she was seeing a long-lost friend. She began to mindlessly play with the needles and yarn, attempting a sad pantomime of crochet. Rahlo let out a deep sigh and wiped some sweat from his brow. It wasn’t hot in here, but he apparently had exerted himself somewhat.

  “Well now that she’s settled, lets fix us some drinks…I’m parched!” Rahlo said with some relief.

  Naurus followed him down some stairs into a cellar. It was damp but cool and rather dark. Rahlo struck a match and lit up a small lantern which illuminated the walls. In this case the walls were all wooden racks filled up and down with all manner of glass bottles, carboys, and demijohns. After a cursory glance around, the resident elder wrangler snapped up a dark green, glass bottle along with a mug and made his way back upstairs with it. They stepped out a back door and Ruby followed them out onto a shaded, wooden portico. A pair of rocking chairs awaited them and Rahlo motioned to sit down. Naurus looked on as his host pulled out a large hunting knife from his belt and held it against the neck of the glass bottle, facing towards the cork. With a swift movement and a nice pop, the cork and the tip of the neck came asunder under the sharp blade of the knife. Ruby was the first to get a nice taste of the dark, fizzy liquid within as some landed on her snout.

  “Now this here,” Rahlo pulled the mug out. “Is a vintage year! Home-made and ain’t no one makes it better!” He poured out some into the tin mug and handed it to Naurus.

  He gulped it down and hardly contained a gag.

  “Yeah, I can tell.” He said, trying to sound impressed. It tasted just like the muscadine at Dezlyn’s, only now it was fizzy
and even harsher.

  Rahlo took a big swig out of the open neck.

  “So uh, who is that again?” Naurus still wasn’t quite sure where they were.

  “That’s Gammy!” Rahlo replied matter-of-factly. “She a sweet old lady, just losing her mind these days. Gods bless her soul, she tries.”

  “I see.” The tin mug imparted a metallic taste onto the fizzy wine which somehow was an improvement to the flavor. “So where are we off to next?”

  “Well, the next leg o’ our journey is goin’ to be the real test of your loyalty, partner. We gots some hell to raise but first we rest for a bit. I’m gettin’ a bit saddle sore too and I missed my sissy. Gammy been feeding ya?”

  Ruby wagged her tail and cozied up to Rahlo as if he had food for her. Naurus finished his mug and set it down on a small log table next to him.

  “Well, if you want more all ya gotta do is ask!”

  Naurus mulled over how to put it nicely. “Oh its great. It’s…you know kinda nice to have something besides wine once in a while. Maybe you have a well or something I can visit?”

  “Ah hell, you ain’t gonna find one around here. How about some shine?”

  “Some what?”

  “Some shine! White lightnin’!”

  “Uh…sure I guess.” He felt stupid and embarrassed asking questions like the outsider he was.

  Rahlo walked back inside, wherein another lively discussion involving Gammy’s transgressions broke out and could be heard outside. Ruby sat by Naurus now and looked at him with large, dark eyes. He scratched her head and gazed out onto the vast, open prairie before him. Copses and hedgerows dotted and crossed the fields. I bet I could lose myself in there. I bet I could run fast enough to get a good head start. Can’t outrun a horse, this is no attack dog though. Hmm…how far is that copse there. Maybe a mile. Need to be quiet to get off this porch first, can’t make any noise. Alright, you can do this. Get ready… The train of thought was shot out from under him as the back door swung open and Rahlo came strutting out.

  He held a mason jar in his hands, full of a clear liquid. Naurus held his mug up to receive a pour of this so-called shine. Maybe the locals just have a weird name for water or something. He thought naively before taking a swig. This was a mistake. The intense burn was unexpected and triggered a gag which shot some of it up into his nose and most of it out of his mouth in a spray. Ruby licked her chops again now that they were moistened by spittle and shine.

  Rahlo was bent over in stitches, red in the face and snorting like a pig. Naurus waited patiently for the laughing fit to subside, realizing the joke was apparently a real good one.

  “You asked for somethin’ different!” He said, wiping a tear away.

  “Yeah…I did. You have a sick sense of humor.”

  Rahlo could hardly keep his composure. “How about some more muscadine to wash that down?”

  “Sure, can’t be any worse than that liquid fire you just gave me. Do you actually drink that for fun?”

  Rahlo nodded with a huge grin while pouring out the last of the fizzy wine and handing it over. Naurus eagerly took a swig to finally mitigate some of the residual burning that hung in his mouth and airway like hot embers. He resigned himself to the humors of his host and his not quite world class drink selection. It was better than getting sores in a saddle all day. A warm breeze fanned over the seas of golden wheat, sorghum, and tallgrasses that stretched before them to seemingly no end.

  “I don’t know about you, but all this drinking makes me hungry.”

  “Does it now?” Rahlo finally had his composure again. “Well I’m sure we can rustle somethin’ up. Come now, lets see if you’re worth anything as a cook!”

  Going back inside was decidedly less peaceful than staying out, but the growling of an empty stomach was impossible to ignore. Rummaging through the larder seemed to trigger Gammy to repeatedly come over in hopes of fixing up her sammiches and was rebuffed by Rahlo and told off like a stray dog every time. This scene repeated a few times before they managed to slop together some salted pork in a boiler along with some veggies to make a soup. True enough, instead of water Rahlo opted to use lager as the base for it. Naurus resisted the temptation to ask why there didn’t seem to be water anywhere in here, he was too hungry to care much anyway. The dinner certainly hit the spot, and Gammy enjoyed it enough to not care about making anything of her own for some time.

  Night soon fell, and a large red moon took over the sky. Naurus was excited to possibly get a decent night’s sleep for the first time in a while.

  “I’m wiped. I’ll just go grab my bedroll and find a spot on the floor or something.”

  “No can do, partner. I’ve gotta put ya in the cellar for tonight.”

  “Bullshit you do! I don’t want to sleep in some pitch-black hole!”

  “Hey now! This ain’t your house and it sure as shit ain’t your rules here. You’ll get a lantern if you’re scared of the dark. Now go on, get!”

  Naurus was too tired to argue and just stopped caring. He was soon set up in the cellar. Damp, cool, and a touch musty but at least it beat being woken up by animals in the dead of night. The sound of the cellar door latching at the top of the stairs was all he needed to hear to know how much trust was placed in him. The lantern cast its warm, dim glow around. The array of glass bottles, metal drinkware, and brass candelabra in the far corner glistened and twinkled with the waxing and waning of the lantern light. He imagined as if he were looking out his window at home, seeing the stars twinkle. The lack of a large, furry mass keeping him warm spoiled the illusion, but that he hoped to be able to have again soon enough.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “There you are.”

  “Wait, who was that? Who goes there?”

  “How can you not remember me?”

  The voice was husky, a bit raspy yet strangely familiar underneath. He found himself standing on the edge of a great precipice, ahead of him a vast, open sea and behind him an equally great landmass. He didn’t know where exactly he was though. It seemed so familiar but at the same time he had no clue why he was there.

  “Don’t you remember me? Silly boy.” The voice was behind him, but he felt planted looking out at the sea.

  He struggled, fought, twisted, and groaned before finally managing to turn around and face the figure behind him. The person was tall and felt familiar yet looked completely strange.

  “There you are. I knew you’d remember. Rest easy now. You aren’t alone. Help is on the way.”

  The voice was aggravatingly familiar and foreign at the same time. He squinted his eyes, but his vision only seemed to get worse. The figure was masked in a hood and cloak. There was plenty of light, but he couldn’t possibly make out the details of the face.

  “I can’t see you…who are you?”

  “I can see you, and you know exactly who I am. Don’t think, just listen.”

  “Where am I? Why am I here?”

  The figure stepped closer but it’s face was still ambiguous and out of focus.

  “You’re here because I’m here. Consider this a message from the ether, the great beyond. Help is on the way. You need to do what you need to do, just don’t die out there. I need you to stay strong for me. I need you—”

  The voice suddenly cut out, as it was modulating and pulsating oddly. It was as if there was a resonance in the air around them. In fact it was a beautiful day, nothing was out of the ordinary. Except his vision, except the face he couldn’t bring into focus. But he could notice the background, behind the figure. Beautiful, rolling green hillsides. But behind the figure was a wagon, bearing two figures he could hardly make out save for a humanoid blur.

  “Who’s that?” He pointed at the wagon with an arm that felt as stiff as a boulder.

  “That’s the help.” The figure answered cryptically.

  He took a step forward, then another and then another. No matter how many steps he took, he couldn’t seem to get any closer to the cloaked figure. He turned his s
tiff walk into a brisk run, but nothing changed. Nothing, except for tripping on a boulder that appeared from seemingly nowhere.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Who in the hell are ya talking to?”

  A shaft of light now punctuated the darkness, throwing heavy yet broken shadows all around. His eyes were heavy, foggy, still unsure of the present reality. Heavy footsteps creaked down behind him. He suddenly felt threatened and shot up, twisting around to face the threat.

  “Why are you lookin’ at me like that? You been havin’ bad dreams or somethin’?” Rahlo asked with a tinge of concern.

  “I…I guess so.” He rubbed his eyes and stretched, feeling melancholy and confused as to what his dream meant.

  “Well get on up ‘ere and we can fix somethin’ to break the fast.”

  Naurus watched his host make his way back up the stairs and then sat there in the shadowy cellar, mulling over whether to cry in frustration or go upstairs and act like nothing was wrong. The figure in his dream was all too familiar yet he simply couldn’t put a finger on it. It was disheartening to say the least, but at this point the ethereal hope of strange figures in his dreams was about the only source of hope was able to cling onto. He needed to stay strong for the strange figure and the hope he felt in the dream. The hope and the strength that allowed him to get up the stairs into the blazing morning light and a now all too familiar sight and sound.

  “Let me fix you some—”

  “Bad Gammy! Bad! Sit down!”

  “You’re a growing young man! Let me fix you some sammiches!”

  “No! No sammiches!”

  Rahlo again pulled the old yarn and crochet trick to get her to settle down. He rolled his eyes at Naurus as he made his way back into the kitchen.

  “Well bud, ya look like shit. Not such a good sleep last night?”

  “It was…alright. Didn’t know I talked out in my sleep.”

  “Well ya sure do!” Rahlo rummaged around, pulling out a few pots and pans. “I think you’ll be happy to know the milkman stopped by this morning…unless of course you still want to try some more shine!”