“What do you make of that?” she asked.
Percy looked back. “We’ll see,” he replied.
When they passed the first crossroads on their way to the mountains, Percy kicked Lightning into a lazy gallop, where they scrambled up over a hill into a copse of trees. He stopped the horse suddenly and dismounted to peer back along their way.
“What are you doing?” demanded Amanda.
Percy held his fingers to his lips. And pointed out towards their back trail. The gang of men that they’d seen from the round were riding hard down the road.
“What’d I tell you? Robbers,” whispered Percy.
“Robbers!” exclaimed Amanda in a harsh whisper.
“Most likely, they’re after the money in my purse and possibly you to be sold off or ransomed,” he whispered.
She was going to say how barbaric this world was but she recalled the number of shootings on the local news from her world and kept her opinions to herself. They waited several more minutes before Percy peeked out from hiding. Satisfied, they set off along a trail that wove along the edge of the woods.
Castle Rheme
They made their way through the woods keeping off the main road saying nothing to each other for quite a while. At first, Amanda held Percy tentatively, but the jostling of the horse forced her to hold him close. He was firm and muscular beneath his uniform. She’d expected that he’d smell like the boys from her school after gym class but instead, he had the subtle scent of flowers and herbs about him.
“How far?” she said to break the silence.
“We’ll ride until dark and then all day tomorrow. With luck we’ll reach Celestra late on the following day.”
“Almost three days,” she said. A feeling of utter helplessness washed over her and it took all of her willpower to keep from breaking down completely. She took several deep breaths to get her feelings under control, then said a silent prayer that Sarah would be okay.
They rode on until along the side of the road until almost dusk. He led the horse back into the woods across some rocky ground, he said, to hide their tracks. They hadn’t gone far when they came across a worn track. Amanda felt certain that Percy had a destination in mind. They continued along the trail until it emerged from the wood onto a clearing. Behind a low wall, there was a collection of dome shaped buildings in the distance. One much larger than the rest. It was shaped like a giant beehive that narrowed as it rose to a jagged apex. It had two pointed towers that guarded the approach, and Amanda could tell that it had once been a fine mansion or even a castle. As they neared, more details became visible. Its roof had collapsed and one of the towers was black with soot. The front gate was missing and smoke stained the glass-like surface of its walls.
“What is this place?” asked Amanda.
“It used to be home to the House of Rheme,” he replied.
“What happened?”
“Lord Rheme sided with Rufus,” he said as though that should be enough.
The arched gateway was tall enough for them to ride through unimpeded. Beyond it, was an open courtyard. A spiral hallway supported by arches ran around the outside and led up to a high rounded ceiling. Half of which was now open to the sky through a jagged hole. On the damp ground beneath the gap, saplings had begun to take root around them. A sign that nature’s repossession had begun.
Percy dismounted in a cleared space furthest from the door where a break in the wall lead out towards more field. Amanda could hear a stream gurgling in the distance.
“This’ll do,” he said, and set about establishing their camp in a workmanlike manner, tending to the horse, laying their blankets on the ground and spreading out a meal before her.
“What’s a pinkling?” asked Amanda as she nibbled on the meal of cold dried meat, another ear of pumcorn, some green cheese and a piece of fruit that looked like an apple but tasted more tart.
“It’s a horrible name for people with no color to their skin. Some think it’s even worse than calling a g’blinken, goblin.”
“G’blinken? You called than man in the bar that. The ones who attacked us, they were g’blinken?”
“Yes, but they’re not all bad. Most of them are just men who want to work, love, and raise a family. But there are different tribes and allegiances best not to group them all together.”
“And goblin?”
“That’s a terrible insult. G’blinken literally means, men from under the mountain, but goblin translates to green skinned, or dirt-digger depending on where you come from. Calling someone goblin is just a bad as calling someone pinkling…” Like a child who realized they’d just said their first swear. he blushed. “Sorry, no offence meant.”
“None taken,” she said. She thought of other racially charged words from her world, the emotions they incited and understood philosophically, though not emotionally what he meant.
They finished their meal in contemplative silence. With no fire to light their camp the darkness came quickly. With nothing else she could do, Amanda curled up on a blanket with Percy’s cloak wrapped protectively around her. As she lay there on the hard ground, anxiety knotted her stomach as she thought about Sarah. Gradually though, the exhaustion from the events of the day completely overwhelmed her and she fell into a fitful sleep.
Amanda dreamt. She was on ship. She could hear the sound of oars in the water and the drumbeats over the call of the coxswain, “Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.”
The sea air was cold and she shivered when a blast of spray washed over the gunnels. The craft, similar to a Viking longboat, raced down a tall wave like a car on a roller coaster. It crashed into the sea and was lifted up by another wave several stories high.
From the peak of the wave she could see that the violent sea around them extended to the horizon. At its center, a pillar of light that reached the clouds shone brightly. She could feel it now, calling to her, drawing her with the same primal urgency of a salmon returning home to spawn. She didn’t yet comprehend why she needed to go there nor did she care. To pull away, to even think about pulling away was painful. Now that she could see it, even in the storm, it took all of her will power to keep from diving off the bow so she might reach it moment sooner.
“You should come below,” said a voice. She felt a familiar touch on her arm. She woke before she could see who it was.
Earthquake
El was on the hood of her car again, the ground trembled and she fell off into oncoming traffic. A giant yellow truck thundered towards her. She screamed and woke up, covered in a cold sweat, her heart racing.
It was dark and the ground beneath her was trembling violently. Not the city dark she was used to with street lights and buildings glowing 24/7 providing protection from the blackness of night. This was country dark where you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Where the simple glare from a lit match seemed like a burning sun. Surrounding her was the type of blackness where you feel lost with no reference points, where your fears manifest into reality and you close your eyes hoping that the terror you feel is just a dream and not some monster come to devour you. The primitive darkness that prey use to conceal themselves from their predators. In this darkness, the shaking of the ground impressed upon her the true power of nature and her own helplessness and insignificance.
The earthquake lasted for well over a minute, and when it finally stopped, she lay petrified; unable to see, unable to sleep, too frightened to move, waiting for the dawn to come and rescue her.
When the warm light of day finally penetrated the thin grey nylon of her tent pushing back her fear, she checked her phone and was both disappointed and a little annoyed that there were no messages from either of her daughters, or her brother. She sent Amanda a message, then sent one to her brother.
“Am I wrong to be here?” she wondered to herself. “Probably,” she realized. “The girls were having a hard time adjusting.”
She’d fix it when she got home, she decided. The promise
felt somehow hollow. She
looked back at her past messages and wondered if the wording sounded harsh. She’d fix that too when she spoke to them.
Feeling unsettled, she rose and made her way to the facilities to relieve herself of the fluids she had been painfully holding onto throughout the night.
Now, feeling more like a person and not some frightened animal, El wandered over to the dining pavilion just as the sun crested the trees. She was the first one to arrive other than the cooks and servers who had the duty that morning.
“Quite the quake,” she said to the woman who put some white toast and watery eggs on a paper plate for her.
“You get used to it,” she said.
“Ha, it's not something I plan to be here long enough to get used to.”
The woman smiled, “Coffee?”
El nodded thanks. “How often?”
“The quakes? The minor tremors, at least one a week. But the one last night was the worst by far. We’re gonna have to make sure we keep heavy stuff on the bottom of shelves from now on. Nothing breakable can get left out anymore.”
“How long have you been here?” asked El.
“Since the beginning. I own a plot of land up the road that’s right next to the camp. It’ll be worthless to anyone but the frackers if they get a hold of this place.”
El took a notebook out of her hip pocket and gathered the woman’s particulars then took a quick picture for her story. She ate before most people got up and was exploring the camp when she saw Rick walking close with the girl from the other day. Before she could turn away, he called her over and made introductions.
“This is Brigit,” he said proudly. “She going to be a journalist too. I was hoping you could give her some pointers and let her shadow you.”
El was too stunned to say anything and nodded not in
in agreement but in shock. “When do you finish high school?” asked El, sarcasm dripping from her words.
Brightly the girl replied. “Oh, I’m already in college.” The sarcasm having passed over her head unnoticed.
El considered the gall of asking her to mentor her replacement for a moment. “But that was Rick, wasn’t it?” she realized. “Zero consideration for anyone else’s feelings.”
She was suddenly so angry she thought she might actually hurt him if she didn’t just walk away. “I’m gonna clean up. I’ll see you around,” she said.
“I’ll come with you. I don’t eat eggs, and I need to clean up too.” She kissed Rick goodbye and followed after El like a stray cat.
“I’ve read all your stories,” said Brigit.
“Really?”
“Yes, Rick keeps a scrapbook.”
Her comment caught El of guard. But she kept quiet. She continued to walk, hoping her silence would give the girl a hint that she wasn’t interested in her company.
Brigit continued to speak. “You haven’t done much for the cause recently though.”
“It’s hard to traipse around the world with a couple of kids in tow.”
“Rick manages.”
“Sure, he does. Until he can’t. Then he calls me to come rescue him like last summer in North Dakota.”
“I read about that.”
“What did you read?”
“North Dakota, Rick was leading a protest that got out of hand. He settled things down and got people talking. The community support for the project dwindled and soon the frackers were forced to shut down over community concerns. I hear they’re still in court trying to get restarted. He’s a hero.”
“What you don’t know is that Rick had convinced me to let
the girls stay with him for a few weeks. He got both sides so fired
up they were ready to kill each other. He led a march right up to the gates with our girls right up front and center. It played great for the media. Rick was in the limelight soaking up the attention, railing on the governments and the corporations for allowing the rape of native lands, using the pretty faces of our daughters like baby seals to tug on the heart strings of potential donors.”
“Well someone has to take a stand.”
“Sure, we all do. But Rick doesn’t know where to stop. I was concerned, but I was sure he wouldn’t put his daughters in harm’s way. That was until someone set off a truck full of explosives next to some drills a hundred feet from where my girls were standing. If I hadn’t been there, keeping them near me who knows what could have happened.”
“They never did catch the people who blew up the drills.”
“That’s not the point,” said El.
“But they stopped the drilling. They’re heroes. They were willing to put it all on the line for the good of the cause,” argued the young girl.
El turned on her. “Don’t you let him fill your head with that environmental warrior nonsense!” she shouted. “Two people were killed. The explosion might have stopped a few drills for a while, but the movement was pushed back years. They got branded as violent extremists, and lots of backers pulled their money because of that stunt. And don’t think the police aren’t still investigating. People died. It’s not going to go away.”
Brigit looked at her and shook her head as if to say to El, “You don’t get it.”
El suddenly had another reason to be angry with Rick. As she turned away, she noticed a crack in the ground that she was sure wasn’t there before. The earthquake had ripped the ground apart and created a thin gully that she needed to step over. Water, with a rainbow of oily film on top, was rising up through the rent and flowing downhill away from them.
Hoping to be rid of the young woman, she paused the conversation with a subtle hand gesture. “I need to look at this,”
said El.
She’d followed the water filled crack the length of a football field before she realized Brigit was right behind her. She continued along until it ended abruptly at a high wall of shale. The crack continued up the wall for a moment, but a shimmer of light appeared over the face of the cliff and the crack suddenly squeezed back together leaving nothing behind but a thin seam.
“That was weird,” said Brigit.
“You saw it too,” asked El uncertainly.
“I wish I’d had my camera ready. It was like magic,” said the girl. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the seam on the rock wall.
El looked pulled plastic lunch bag out of her pocked and bent down to scoop up some of the oily sludge.
“Gross,” said Brigit.
“Part of the gig. Evidence.” El proceeded to scoop up as much of the contaminated water as she could and dated the bag with a sharpie as Brigit videoed the collection using the camera on her phone.
“Send me the clip. I’ll use it to help verify where and when we collected this sample.”
As they turned to walk towards the showers, the ground shook again.
Ribesal
She lay there on the hard ground with Percy’s cape wrapped around her. She was secretly glad he’d insisted she take it.
“Could she trust him?” she wondered.
“Best not to,” she decided after giving the thought consideration. “He’ll be gone one day too.”
She could hear him shuffling about and when she looked around her, the tri-moons light streaming through the gap in the roof revealed his shape moving about the abandoned courtyard.
She lay in silence, nothing to distract her, and as the night wore on, the worry she felt became more intense. She began to cry softly and after some time, cried herself into a restless dozing state.
She dreamt.
Nana and Papa were walking along side of her, each holding one on her hands. She recalled a time when she was only five and the three of them walked along the gentle shore of a great lake holding hands the same way. She would pull her hands free, laugh, and then sprint down to the water; only to dash back to the safety as soon as the cold water touched her toes.
Now, they were on a different beach with angry waves crashing against the rocks behind them. It was so real. She was certain she felt the co
ld sea spray on her back and it made her shiver. She looked back over her shoulder and saw a ship bobbing up and down in a lagoon, - a dromon. The name popped in her head from medieval studies at school. Past the ship, a storm raged. She turned her head to look around and saw that the storm was all around them and she and her grandparents were standing in the calm eye of a great storm.
Nana looked up and gestured into the distance. Amanda
followed her gaze and rising up into the clouds was a smooth stone pillar as tall and broad as any skyscraper she’d ever seen before. She looked back to her grandparents but they were gone; she was alone in front of the monolith.
It appeared suddenly, an entrance. It was black and she was frightened. But still, she moved towards it. She placed her hand on the edge of the entrance to peer in and was surprised that the polished stone felt warm and pulsated at her touch as though it were alive.
“Light!” she commanded, and the hallway immediately became illuminated with a warm yellow glow. Before her, the corridor stretched into the distance further than she could see. Her heart raced but she entered anyways; the fingers of her left hand trailing along the smooth walls as she moved deeper and deeper towards the call that drew her forward.
In a blink, she was standing in the middle of a great cavern. At its center was a pool that glowed with a bright blue light that reminded her of the pool at her apartment building. Nana stood next to the edge and beckoned her to approach.
Suddenly, Amanda was awakened by a strong callused hand across her mouth. She struggled to get herself free but Percy whispered in her ear.
“Shhhhh! Someone’s out there.”
He had just started to pull her to her feet when a blinding flash of light erupted in the middle of the courtyard. There was another flash, and another. Amanda blinked her eyes in a futile attempt to clear the bright white dots that swam across her retina. Suddenly, she felt the impact of a blindside check that threw her to the ground. Tangled up in her skirt, she was struggling to get up when she heard the sound of shouting and clashing steel around her.
Amanda Applewood and the Return of the False King: An Everworld Book Page 10
