Empire's Edge (Path of Light Book 2)

by N. A. Oberheide

  He looked very familiar.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Hey! Dipshit!”

  “What?!”

  “Guess what I found?!”

  “…what?”

  “Get yer lazy ass over ‘ere!”

  He waited patiently for his friend to make his way back to where he was. There wasn’t a rush, or so it seemed. However, the first thing to cross Trevin’s mind wasn’t regret, but absolution. But not a comforting absolution, it was the kind that only reveals itself after someone close to the heart gets hurt. The hope that finally it will all be better once all the loose ends are tied, and business is settled. Standing in front of him was someone who looked like his son, but with a blood-stained tunic and a jagged piece of shrapnel poking out of his arm. Dried blood was staining his usually pale skin around his nose and mouth, and his eyes darted about as if not entirely sure what was going on.

  This apparent confusion was dispelled though, when he finally got his arms around his son, who dropped the rifle he shakily clutched and returned the embrace in kind, as best as anyone can do with one good arm. The moment could not be enjoyed in peace, however.

  “Ay! Who th’ hell are ya? Get outta there! That ain’t yours!”

  A dwarf bellowed belligerently, standing on top of the toppled car and looking down.

  Neither of the recipients bothered to reply, instead walking off and meeting up with Gully, who may very well have been dead by now had the rifle been loaded just minutes ago.

  “Where’s that guy you were with?”

  “What guy?” Naurus replied with some confusion.

  “The one who was with you back in that cave?”

  “Oh…uh…” He looked around, seeing nothing but wreckage and dozens of dwarves in various states of injury milling around angrily. “I don’t know. I think he ran off over there.” He pointed to the nearby woods.

  “Well that’s just where we get to go now. I have some questions for him.” Trevin said with an audible frustration.

  So they went, slowly but surely combing the woods with Naurus pointing the way to the hideout they occupied the night before. They arrived without incident, and inside the cavern lay nothing but a pile of ash and old discarded clothes. Now, there was only one horse tethered outside. The same one that accepted its fate as Naurus was helped onto it by his father who then led them out of the woods.

  “Do you know where he might have gone?”

  “No idea…maybe to some town from where we came?”

  “Which town?”

  “I…don’t know what it was called.”

  Trevin sensed the disappointment in his voice.

  “It matters little, but now we have bigger fish to fry.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, like that jagged piece of metal suck in you!”

  Naurus looked down at it again. The once bright blood was now dark and coagulated. Just now, looking at it again, did the prickling burn emanating from the wound become apparent again. He winced again as his roan stamped its feet and tried to rear up but was quickly yanked back down by the two lifelong friends on either end of the bridle. They soon emerged back out and intentionally gave a wide berth to the wreckage, which was surrounded by heavily armed dwarves now. Off in the distance, near a copse, Trevin could have sworn he saw a dwarf chasing an elf with a mattock, furiously peddling his stubby legs to try the catch the lithe, long legged enemy. He couldn’t help but to chuckle.

  “What’s so damned funny?” Gully asked, eyeing the dwarves suspiciously.

  “Nothing…just a dumb joke I remembered.”

  “Yeah? Which?”

  “What do you call a cow with no legs?”

  “Uh…dead?”

  “Ground beef!”

  “I wish I didn’t ask.”

  Gully didn’t appreciate the joke, but his son did who managed to laugh despite the obvious discomfort. They made it back over the meadow that separated the two forests and snaked their way back through to the camp. Once they got Naurus dismounted, they sat him up against a tree and started a small fire in the pit of last night’s ashes.

  “Why are you starting a fire in daylight?” He couldn’t help but to ask.

  “Because, we have to do something that’s going to hurt really fucking bad, but we have to do it to prevent infection.”

  The son wasn’t very comforted by this response but was even more discomforted by the fact that Gully had crouched down next to him with a bottle of clear liquid and a bandana. He proceeded to pull out a knife and gingerly cut off the sleeve of the tunic where the wound was. After this, Gully uncapped the bottle and started pouring the clear liquid on. First the burning pain was obvious, then the obnoxious smell of alcohol. Naurus groaned and pulled away.

  “Now now…stay still! Here have some!” Gully stuck the bottle of vodka out, but the offer was declined. “Suit yourself!”

  While the vodka was being swilled by the disheveled medical professional, Naurus realized his father was heating up something in the fire. Looking closely, it was his beloved Toothpick. But what for? He asked himself, as the next wave of burning pain from the vodka washed over his arm. Soon it became apparent though. He watched his father take the knife off the fire, and the dull red glow was apparent in the deep shade of the canopy. He walked over and motioned Gully to move aside.

  “Now son listen…this is really going to hurt. But it has to be done, want this to bite down on?” He picked up a sizable stick, which Naurus reluctantly bit down on.

  “Alright, first things first…I wouldn’t look if I were you.”

  The invitation to look was met with the sight of the only man in the world he loved and trusted pinching the metal with his fingers and yanking it out in a fast, smooth movement. The pain spiked through his head, coursing throughout his body in a prickling wave. Fresh blood started running, but only barely before the dully glowing stiletto blade was pressed hard into the wound. A sizzling accompanied the bubbling of the blood, the smell of burning flesh, and the tears now streaming down his face. He closed his eyes, unable to keep them open through the intense pain.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The only thing more uncomfortable than not realizing you fell asleep is waking up all alone after the fact. That was exactly what was so concerning now, given the sun had mostly set and only a dull yellowing light filtered through the trees. He sat up, pushing off the tree he had slumped up against some time ago. The reason for this situation had escaped him, until he planted his left arm to stand up and was greeting with a jolt of pain that buckled his elbow. Bracing with his good arm, he stood up and looked down. The wound was now wrapped tightly with a cornflower blue bandana, replete with a dark stain right over where the wound was.

  Walking towards the fire pit, there were only embers and ash to be seen. The pup tents were still set up though, so the absence of his father and his scraggly, ugly friend were even more of a mystery. Something rustled behind him. He spun around and saw nothing more than wood and leaves as far as the eye could see.

  “Did you have a nice nap?” Came his father’s voice from behind him.

  He wheeled back towards the firepit but didn’t see his father there either.

  “Dad, are you just messing with me? Stop hiding!”

  “I’m not hiding, I’m right here!”

  Naurus zeroed in on the exact source of the voice and noticed a faintly shimmering mass of air on the other side of the fire. The shimmering haze coalesced into a solid shadow and then into the man who it was cloaking just moments before.

  “How are you doing all that?!”

  “I told you I was a changeling. Yet you didn’t believe your old man, did ya?”

  “Well no…I mean yes but—”

  “But you never believed in things you can’t see. I know you too well. Of course you’re skeptical, but this is the real deal.”

  Trevin set down a heavy satchel and plopped down on a log to begin digging through it.

  “So, why did you do thi
s?”

  “You must have taken a pretty good knock to the head, son. Like I said, we had to cauterize the wound to—”

  “No, not that.” His father looked up at him from under his hood. “I meant coming out here. Now we’re both stuck out here and—”

  “I’d much rather be stuck out here with you than floating my liver at home.” Trevin returned the cut-off in kind. “I knew something bad was going to happen. Morra just…is a hot-head and you are too young to be doing this kind of shit. Now she got herself killed and out here, shits just different. Back home, you must go looking for trouble. Out here, trouble finds you.”

  “Yeah, that’s for damn sure.”

  “And now you’ve blown up that uh…what that thing out there called?”

  “The dwarves called it a locomotive, but the guys I was with were calling it a behemoth.”

  “Right, whatever it was, it was full of goodies and all the dwarves have apparently walked off to try to get back home. Check this out!”

  Trevin threw his hood back and started pulling things out of the satchel. Naurus was too distracted by what he was now seeing to notice what was in the bag. His father noticed this blank stare and cocked his head.

  “Why are you staring at me like I’m some sort of ghost?”

  “Your uh…since when did you get hair?”

  Trevin combed his hands through the short but thick crop of fiery hair that was now sprouting in his usually bald pate.

  “Yeah, funny thing isn’t it? At home, I could hardly manage to do anything. Out here, suddenly I can use all my intrinsic abilities, and now my damn hair is even coming back!”

  “I sure hope it don’t fall back out. That’d be a damn shame, Rooster!” Gully said out of the shadows, walking back into camp with armfuls of sticks and branches.

  With that they stoked the fire back up and started sifting through some of the loot. They were able to cobble together a nice meal of smoked fish, fried nuts, cheese curds, and enough alcohol to kill them all. These were unusually luxurious provisions, but Naurus cared not that they were ill gotten gains at this point. The entire expedition out here was ill conceived, and the tables had finally turned back in his favor. Fortune was working in mysterious ways indeed, yet the battle to get back home was far from over. The campfire crackled, sparks flitted about like lightning bugs on a summer’s eve. It had been a long time since Naurus had felt this at ease, even it was an uncomfortable ease broken up by the occasional throbbing come from his arm.

  “Where do we go next?” Naurus piped up, massaging the wound.

  “Well…” Trevin started, exchanging a sidelong glance with Gully, “we aren’t exactly sure. But we do know that we are heading towards another town, down in the direction where that loco-whatever it was came from.”

  Naurus laughed at the new-found name for the behemoth that was now little more than twisted wreckage in a glen, full of valuable cargo that was far too much to carry with just three men and some horses. The stark darkness of night enveloped them around the orange glow of the fire. It was rather muggy out, which sure beat trying to sleep in the cold. He wondered if the figure that haunted his dreams would come back. It unsettled him, but he suddenly felt at ease after convincing himself it must have been his father all along.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  To most, the period between falling asleep and waking up feels like hardly more than a long blink. For others such as soothsayers and mediums, it was a way to connect to the great beyond, the ether of other planes of existence. And yet to a select few, it was foisted upon them, sprung like an ambush knowing the inevitable need for sleep would have to be answered by the unwitting victim. The latter was judged entirely in the eye of the beholder.

  “I’m glad you’re safe now.”

  He looked at his feet, clad in boots so pristine the sun burned his eyes off the reflection. The wind buffeted the tall grass all around him, yet none was to be felt.

  “I’m not safe yet.”

  “No, not entirely. But I will find you, and then you will be.”

  “You keep saying that, and it’s about time to put your money where your mouth is.”

  He heard no response and figured he might as well turn around to see if anything changed. Nothing did. Nothing at all. He just felt an intense, almost cocky confidence emanating from under the hood.

  “It’s not nice to talk to an old friend like that.”

  “You’re not my friend. Show yourself!”

  “In time. For now, getting you somewhere safer is more important. Listen very carefully. I know where you are now, and you’re in a good spot but not in the clear yet. You need to run to the sun, and don’t stop running until you hit the sea.”

  “What?!”

  “Run to the sun! Do not stop until you are at the sea!” The figure put an acidic emphasis on the last part, so sharp that Naurus started to doubt if he was dreaming or not.

  “Uh…ok. I don’t know where we’re going though and—”

  “And you’re still afraid of your old man?” The figure stuck its arms akimbo, a display of emotion not seen until now. “He’s with you now, but so what? Do you think I’d tell you this just to pull your leg?”

  Naurus suddenly felt ashamed and diverted his gaze. Who is this and how do they know I’m with my dad? This doesn’t make sense!

  “You can ruminate all you want, Naurus. I know you, and sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. Fortune has already opened her hands to you. Do you trust her to open them again?”

  “I…I hope so.”

  There was a rather long pause. Or at least it felt like one. Time never seemed to shift here, but the silence was absolute. The figure folded its arms up and started tapping its foot against the ground. Thump…thump…thump the taps were almost painfully loud.

  “I know you’re holding your tongue and not telling me something.”

  “No, I’m not. Just send me back.”

  He tried to sound confident, but it came off as more of a suggestion than a command. He started pinching himself, but he felt nothing through the cotton sleeve. He looked down, realizing he was in his parade dress uniform and absolutely spotless at that. He attempted to pull the sleeve up, but it felt nailed on. It didn’t budge at all before he gave up in futility.

  “I’m not letting you go until you promise me something.”

  He sighed deep and hoarsely. “What would that be?”

  “That you will run to the sun, and not stop until you hit the water. Promise?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes or no!” The figure snapped back.

  “Yes.”

  The figure cocked its head.

  “I don’t entirely believe you, but its something. This is like pulling hens teeth. You’re a real pain in my ass, you know that?”

  “Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

  “Oh, its very much a bad thing. Very much.”

  Naurus laughed, starting to realize he had some way of irritating this otherwise placid figure.

  “Good. I thought for some time that you were my father just haunting my dreams. Seems that isn’t the case. You act like you know me. So maybe you should know that I don’t trust faceless haunts!”

  The figure threw its head back and bellowed in laughter. Naurus started to get flustered again.

  “I wish I could be with you right now, I really do. I wish you could see how little you really know. You still have that youngblood coursing through you, boiling with indignance and overflowing with ignorance. I love it and hate it in equal measure. I used to be like you, believe it or not.”

  “You used to be someone who just wanted to be left the fuck alone? I can’t get any respite in my own damn sleep! I already hate most of my waking hours too…”

  He could feel an ignominious, yet pitiful gaze fall on him. He felt it burn through him, making him regret his words with every passing second.

  “I get it. I really do. Yes, I used to be just like you. I sometimes feel like I’m t
alking to my younger self here. You have to trust me though. I can’t reveal my identity here. It’s not safe.”

  Naurus looked around with exaggerated indignance. As he suspected, there was absolutely no living creatures to be seen besides them. Nothing but trees, grass, and the massive expanse of the sea behind him.

  “Yeah, yeah. You can stop now. That’s not what I mean.”

  “Why don’t you stop fucking with me and my sleep?”

  “Ouch…fine. Have it your way. I have a duty to care for you. I have a duty to keep you safe. I have to keep myself safe at the same time. Just because you can’t see anything with your eyes, doesn’t mean something isn’t there. The world is far more complicated than what meets the eye. Good night, Naurus.”

  The figure turned tail and started walking away. He realized this was the first time he had ever seen the figure do something besides stand in place. He thought he finally won the battle for his dreams.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Come again?”

  “Its…a real long story. I done hardly escaped with my life!”

  A deep sigh filled the smoky, stuffy room. On one side of the table, a mat of rough stubble was being scratched nervously. On the other side, a thick handlebar mustache was stroked methodically.

  “You’ve failed me. I ain’t sure why I trusted you, but I did. Now, you are aware this was your idea?”

  “Yes sir! It’s not all lost though, without me he’s—”

  “This ain’t about you!” Big Boss snapped. “This is about us! Our entire livelihoods is on the line now. Do you know how bad this would be if he made it back to his homeland?”

  “Yes…yes sir I do.”

  “And tell me what you plan to do about it?”

  “I never dare to do anything without your blessing.”

  “Indeed.” Big Boss stroked his mustache, puffing on his pipe and obscuring his face with a thick cloud of smoke.