Dark Horse

by Jay Swanson

  He stumbled forward, then stopped to look around. There was nothing to warn him of an attack should one come, no topaz and hardly any cognitive skills readily at his command. He shielded his eyes against the rising sun to look around, but no threat presented itself.

  Maybe the monsters only come at night as well. He could hope.

  Chakra started forward again cautiously. Adrenaline began to enter his system to compensate for the sleep deprivation. The tenseness returned to his muscles to give him the necessary twitch that could be the difference between life and death.

  He grit his teeth as his determination set itself against his need for sleep. That war was destined to be lost soon, but he could stave off sleep a little longer.

  The ground at the center was clear as far as he could tell. The outer ring was covered in small squared stones, spaced at regular intervals. Even those smaller rocks scattered around the path and beyond couldn't hide much. His mind started creating fears from shadows. There couldn’t be anything that big coming for him. But the badger-cat had been small. Could something smaller be hiding behind the stones?

  He kicked a rock for good measure, sending it skidding into its neighbors as it careened between them with a series of cracks. Nothing showed itself. Nothing had been behind the rock, and suddenly he began to hope that there was no monster guarding this piece.

  What did the woods doctor say? His hopes bounced off of his uncertainties with the same violence as the stone he had kicked. I would know the piece was real if it reacted to the topaz... how will I know it's real if it's asleep?

  And the certainty that it was real only diminished with every closing step, for no monster had yet appeared to keep him from it. Would they attack him if he was on the wrong trail?

  He came to the edge of the bare swath of ground and stopped to look around once more. Still, nothing appeared. No monsters from among the boulders, no lizard-hawks from above. Nothing appeared.

  “Maybe I am on the wrong path,” he said to himself as disappointment and exhaustion weighed his shoulders into a slouch. He looked back up at the armor on the dais, an entire leg's worth of armor just sitting out in the open. “I guess I should at least gather it and check it at nightfall.”

  The area around the dais was completely clear of stones, leaving an empty patch of ground in a perfect circle. It was strange, unnatural at the very least. Chakra adjusted the sack on his shoulder and moved forward. No sooner did he step into the clearing did the ground shudder and crack immediately in front of him. It split from the initial crack, and split again with a sharp burst of noise as the broad long snout of a monstrous reptile suddenly shoved itself through the dry soil.

  Chakra jumped back with a start, shouting as he reached for his sword, but then there was nothing. He looked around the clearing, then tested the crack in the ground with his boot.

  Yeah, he thought as he shook his head. That much is real.

  Chakra stood over the spot for a moment longer, breathing heavily. His exhaustion threatened to turn to a physical illness as his heart raced with fresh adrenaline. He clasped his sword back in place, fighting to keep his eyes from crossing as he did so, and made for the dais. The armor resting on it looked like it would fit his right leg.

  Wish I would've had this before that badger clawed my shin... He pulled it down and half-dragged it back out of the clearing, wandering like a drunk on his way home from a night at the Dragon. As soon as he was back among the boulders, he found a shaded cleft and threw himself down to sleep.

  - - -

  “Where do you think Chakra's gone, Father?” Flora asked. She was putting the entirety of her small frame into scrubbing down the table that sat in the center of their house.

  “I don't know, Flora.” Yoren set his hay-tipped broom in the corner and walked over to help his daughter scrub the old wooden platform. So many memories around this table, he thought. “He'll need time to heal from this.”

  “How much time?” Flora couldn't hide her concern for her older brother if she tried. Her face scrunched up in a sorrowful stare when she was worried, and she never worried more for anyone than her family. Yoren loved her all the more for it.

  “I don't know,” he said as he continued to scrub without looking up. “Death takes its toll on us all, though the burden is heavier on some than on others. Your brother is strong, but that strength has had a root in Melina for a long time. He is young for something like this.”

  “He's not that young!” Flora said. “Not truly.”

  “Not that young indeed.” Yoren nodded his agreement as he reflected on his son. Chakra was strong, but he feared what foolishness his grief would drive him to, especially with the looming war. The last thing he needed was his son rushing into battle like he had absolutely nothing to lose. It could lead him to great deeds, but great deeds were exactly the kind that lost fathers their sons.

  “Chakra!” A bellowing shout came rolling up the path that led to their home. “CHAKRA!”

  “Who's that, Father?”

  Yoren didn’t know. He motioned for her to stay put as he turned and walked to the door. “Stay inside.”

  “But, Fath–”

  “Stay inside.” He opened the door to find Melina's father barreling towards his house on a warpath. “Sen! What's wrong?”

  “Where is that boy of yours?” Sen continued right up the steps until he was physically stopped by Yoren. The shepherd was a massive man, but not nearly so big as the woodsman.

  “He's not here,” Yoren said as he struggled to stay in Sen's path.

  “I said where is he? Not where isn't he!” Sen gave Yoren a shove back towards the house. “Where is that damned boy of yours?!”

  “What's happened?”

  “It's Melina!” Sen said as he grabbed his hair and looked at the windows. His body was tense yet unconsciously driven to pace at the same time, fighting to remain still and scream all at once.

  “She's passed already? We were going to co–”

  “I don't know!” Sen yelled at him.

  “How can you not know?”

  “Because your bloody boy up'n took her from our home!”

  Oh Chakra... And in that instant Yoren knew exactly what had happened. He didn't need to hear Sen's story, though he asked him for it and listened with patience. He knew exactly what his son had gone and done, and it was far more foolhardy than he had even imagined possible.

  “I'm sure we'll find them,” Yoren said as soothingly as he could, his own nerves jumbling as he said the words. “They couldn't have gone far.”

  “He's not foolish enough to take her to the woods doctor, is he?” Sen grabbed Yoren's shirt at the chest. “Is he?!”

  “No,” Yoren lied. Yes... gods help us, yes he is.

  Sen shoved Yoren as he turned to make his way back down the stairs. “You had better find your boy before I do. Because when I find him I swear I'll rip his throat out with my bare hands and feed him to the dogs.”

  Yoren knew he meant it. Should Sen find Chakra, Yoren was afraid he would be powerless to save his son.

  - - -

  “Did you hear?” Pegg shouted. Aims could hear him running at a sprint behind him in the field. “Aims!”

  “I'm shooting...” Aims said, compromising with the urge to remain silent as he tried to maintain his focus. It was hard enough with dreams of Chakra echoing in his mind. He never dreamed. “Shut up.”

  “Aims, listen to me!”

  Aims let loose on the arrow, the fletching tickling his cheek ever so slightly as the string snapped past. “Gods damn you!” He shouted as soon as he released. He didn't even bother to watch it strike the target he'd set up twice the normal distance away, knowing it was going to miss the mark from the moment he had let it go. “What is so important that you can't let me shoot?”

  “It's Melina!” Pegg said as he came to a sudden halt. “She's gone!”

  Aims sighed, ashamed of himself for his temper. The mention of Melina put everything into such overbe
aring perspective. “I know, Pegg. We all know.”

  “No, she's gone!” Pegg put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. “And so is Chakra!”

  “What?” Aims couldn't believe what he was hearing. “He didn't... they're not...”

  “No one knows where they are, but her father is raising the entire village to search for them. They're going building to building; soon they'll start sweeping the forest.”

  “That idiot...” Aims barely kept from slapping his own forehead.

  “I know.”

  “If Thruss hadn't said anything!”

  “Don't blame Thruss.” Pegg shook his head. “C'mon, this is Chakra being a hothead.”

  “Chakra's not a hothead!” Aims shouted. “I'm the hothead! Chakra's solid! Stable!”

  “Melina's dying, Aims... Chakra isn't Chakra any more... at least he won't be soon.”

  And those words were the truest Aims had heard in a long time. Gods be good, he thought. Chakra won’t be Chakra any more. And Melina… could we actually save Melina? He stuttered for a moment before stopping to start over. “What the hell are we going to do?”

  “We have to stop him!” Pegg was almost shouting now. “We have to save him. Melina's father is gonna kill him for this!”

  It was true, Sen would kill Chakra for this. “It's too late to stop him, Pegg.”

  “We have to try! We have to do something, even if we have to take him somewhere safe. We can't just let him come back and get killed!”

  “They'll brand us as deserters, Pegg. We've taken the King's silver. They’ll send Monks.”

  “They'll kill him, Aims!” Pegg looked like he might actually cry. “They'll kill him...”

  Aims looked at Pegg for what must have felt an age.

  I wish I was as good a friend as you are, Pegg. “Fine.” Aims unstrung his bow and started walking. “But no one can see us leave or they'll know we know where they are.”

  - - -

  The walk back to Pegg's home was as difficult as leaving the village would prove to be. The village was alive with the search for Melina. Both of the young men knew with a certainty that they would never find her in, let alone anywhere near, the village. Chakra had listened to Thruss, and in his grief was foolish enough to actually try the one thing no one in the village would ever attempt.

  The woods doctor was as much a legend as any of the old stories, but one whose proximity to their village made him an almost constant presence in the collective mind of the people. A Master Expressionist, and a rogue one at that. Rogue or not, a Master of any kind was a rarity in the mountains for the last century.

  Children were told that he came and stole naughty boys and girls away in the night, turning them into a stew or working them as slaves under the mountain. Adults didn't believe such stories, or at least they weren't supposed to, but the stories they did believe were far worse. It was said the ruined castle in the mountains was the home of a monstrous evil, something the woods doctor had given himself to. Something to which he would willingly give others.

  Those on the fringe spoke of an ability to restore health to the sick, and even life to the dead. Those members of the village kept their beliefs to themselves, but the rumors played ever on the hopes of anyone to face losing a loved one. No self-respecting villager would ever follow through on the impulse to seek the woods doctor's help, but the temptation was ever there. Even if it remained unspoken.

  Pegg's father owned horses, which was why it was to his house that they now did their best to sneak undiscovered. Getting out into the forest with the horses would be chancy at best, but Aims secretly hoped that the village wasn't fully committed to finding Melina, at least not so much as to chase down two boys on horses into the forest on a base suspicion. The horses at least would come willingly enough.

  Aims set himself to watch the outside from just behind the doors while Pegg set to prepping their mounts. He had finished saddling one and was strapping a saddle on a second when the doors burst open.

  “Ho now!” Aims said, jumping up and throwing the intruder to the ground. Aims put a knee on his chest before he cursed. “Thruss, you blundering idiot.”

  Thruss was breathing heavily from running, though he gasped for air even more as Aims let up and stood to close the doors to the stables again.

  “They're after Chakra!” Thruss said as he worked to stand up. “They're gonna kill him!”

  “They aren't going to kill him,” Aims said as he kicked some hay at Thruss. “Melina's father might want to, but no one's gonna kill him for this.”

  “No!” Thruss said with bulging wide eyes. “My father said that Melina's father will get him killed one way or another, that there are others that'll go along with it. He says stealing a girl from her family with her dying is the same as murder.”

  “It's not murder,” Pegg said as he brought the horses out. “She's got the black flux!”

  “Is so murder,” Thruss said as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “It doesn't matter why she dies, it only matters that she's dead. That’s what my father says.”

  “Well we aren't gonna let them catch him,” Aims said, pushing Thruss aside and grabbing the reins of one of the horses.

  “You...” Thruss looked stricken, the blood draining from his flushed cheeks. “You know they'll never let you back.”

  “We know.” Pegg sighed. “Thruss, Chalk's more important than where we live. He's more important to us than our reputations, the war... that's what friends are for.”

  “But, the war.” Thruss looked from one to the other plaintively. “You've signed up to fight in the army... won't they hunt you?”

  “They can try to hunt us,” Aims said with a half-cocked smile.

  “They'll send Monks,” Thruss protested, though his certainty was wavering. Monks were the King's preferred mercenaries, and mercenaries were who he sent after deserters. There was less chance of any sympathy being doled out on the offending parties if they were being hunted for bounty.

  “They won't care about us, Thruss.” Pegg patted him on the shoulder. “We hardly matter that much.”

  They moved to pass Thruss as Aims opened one of the doors to walk the horses out.

  “Then I'm coming too,” Thruss declared as he followed them out.

  “Thruss,” Aims said with no small hint of disdain. “We need to move quickly. Thus the horses.”

  “I brought a horse.” Thruss smiled. “I saw you sneaking around and thought I should get my own. I knew you wouldn't want to share, Aims.”

  Aims grit his teeth. “You can't come, Thruss! You’ll just get in the way.”

  “Let him,” Pegg said as he walked his horse past the two of them and made for the trees. “You know we can use him. Besides, Chalk means as much to Tubbs as he does to either of us.”

  Thruss didn't even bother to hear what Aims had to say before peeling off around the stable to collect his horse. Aims fumed for a moment, then grumbled under his breath and made to follow Pegg. He will ruin everything, Aims thought. His tender, yellow clumsiness is no good in a pinch.

  The trees were thick near Pegg's home. It took them a while to make it through and into the first clearing beyond. They mounted their horses there and began to work their way around the western side of the village. More than once Aims spotted search parties through the trees ahead, forcing them farther out away from the village and deeper into the forest. What felt like it should have taken an hour at most took them several.

  “If we ever make it back we need to build a road around the village,” Thruss muttered.

  “Just for these especially sneaky occasions.” Pegg said from the lead. “No one would think to look for you on the road made for sneaking.”

  “I hope we can come back someday.” Aims said wistfully. There wasn’t anyone he loved that he was leaving behind. He may have come to hate it, but it was still home. “Right now we need to focus on getting Chakra and Melina.”

  Pegg turned in the saddle as he searched the ground
. “Finding the road into the mountains is probably foremost.”

  But while finding the road should have been a simple task, there was no sign of it anywhere. Not for hours.

  “You're certain you know where it is?” Aims hissed as Pegg turned them back on their trail for the third time.

  “Obviously I know where it is,” Pegg hissed back. “It's just that I lost a button around here somewhere and I can't go on without it.”

  “Hilarious.” Aims rolled his eyes.

  “I'll look preposterous.”

  They pushed farther from the village with each snaking turn, afraid of being caught before they had even made it away. They came up to a particularly thick grouping of trees that was too dense to pass through, though eventually they were able to work their way around it. Aims drew up next to Pegg as they continued around the trees to ask a question when he was interrupted.

  “Boys.”

  Both of them came to a quick halt simultaneously. Before them Chakra's father sat on a horse. They just appeared there between the trees as if they had grown up from among them.

  “S-sir!” Aims stuttered. Gods, how did I not see him?

  “Where do you think you're going?” The massive, bearded woodsman eased his horse forward, a huge double-headed ax resting firmly against the crook of his neck. It looked very much like the smith's horse to Aims.

  “We're...”

  “We're helping them look for Chalk,” Pegg said with a sudden conviction. “We need to find him.”

  “Helping them look for Chalk.” Chakra's father rolled the phrase back across his tongue as if tasting for impurities. “I don't believe you.”

  “Why wouldn't we look for Chakra?” Aims blurted out. “He's our friend!”

  “Oh, I believe you're looking for Chakra.” Yoren smiled. “I just don't think you're helping anyone but yourselves.”

  “Of course we're helping the village,” Pegg said with a notable loss to his earlier conviction. “Everyone needs to help find him, before he does something foolish.”