Several hours into their journey, they found themselves walking up a gentle slope beside a series of meandering hills. The autumn leaves fell from the trees in flurries of brown and burgundy. Here and there a stray cabin appeared on the distant horizon, but there were no towns or settlements to be found out here. An occasional burst of wind howled as it rushed between the trees, singing like a chorus of ghosts.
“This is brutal,” John said. Sweat was beginning to trickle from his forehead. “Is there anything to see out here besides dirt and trees?”
“I dunno,” said Lorenza, “it’s a beautiful day outside, and the fall foliage is gorgeous around this time of year. It’s not so bad.”
Nivin nodded, looking up into the swaying canopy of leaves above.
John shrugged. “I guess.”
For several long seconds, all that could be heard was their trudging footsteps kicking up and crunching dead leaves. Though there was no discernible change in the density of the trees as they proceeded, the path they were on seemed to grow more desolate and lonely by the minute.
“Should we sing a song to pass the time?” Remmy asked.
“Hell no!” John said, looking at Remmy aghast.
Rialta smirked, cleared her throat, and began to sing:
The leaves, the leaves once high above,
Come raining down as Fall draws near,
Renew the earth, and life, and love,
For soon we meet with Winter’s fear
Bring back—
“All right, Rialta,” John said firmly, cutting her off.
“What, is that one too sad for you, John?” Rialta said.
“Hmph,” John grunted.
“All right then,” Rialta said.
They remained mostly silent as they continued down the trail for the next several hours. Just when the sun was beginning to set, however, they came upon a long, downward slope along which the trees thinned out and the dirt path seemed to fade into tufts of thick grass.
“Here we are,” Lorenza said, beaming as she stretched an arm out in front of her. “The Lonely Plains, everyone.”
Rialta squinted her eyes into the fading light of day and looked toward the Lonely Plains. Lorenza hadn’t been kidding—it was indeed a very small town. Several stone houses were scattered in no particular arrangement across the long, flat expanse of land. A number of the houses appeared as though they had been abandoned some time ago, their walls crumbling or their roofs missing large patches of shingles. A cluster of wooden buildings was situated in the middle of the town, but Rialta could not discern their function. To the east was a little thicket of woods, and immediately in front of the trees was a tiny cottage and a small barn with a pen for its animals, though the pen was empty. Rialta assumed the animals must have been brought into the barn for the evening.
“We best just set up camp for the night,” Lorenza said as she swung her pack from her shoulders and dropped it on the ground. “There ain’t any lodging in this little town. So unless you guys want to try to find a very friendly local to take us in for the night…”
“Not a chance,” John said, and he too dropped his pack on the ground. “But are we going to have any trouble from the townsfolk if we set up camp out here?”
“Naw, these are decent folks out here. Me and Nivin have met a bunch of them before. As long as we keep quiet they won’t pay us any attention.”
“I can get a fire going for us,” Rialta said.
“Good, I’m getting hungry and I’ve got plenty of food that needs cooking. Remmy, give me a hand with the tent, will ya?” John said.
Within minutes, they had managed to set up the two large tents, and Nivin and Rialta had found enough stray rocks to build a little firepit while Lorenza gathered wood. With a quick snap of her fingers, Rialta ignited the wood in the firepit, and they all gathered around to sit by the fire just as the sun was setting in the sky. An eerie mix of green, blue, and purple hues glimmered across the skyline as night fell upon the Lonely Plains. The wind seemed to pick up now, its gusts causing the flames to dance from side to side.
“It’s kind of spooky out here,” Remmy said as pulled his cloak tighter around his chest and watched the treetops sway in the distance.
“Nah,” John said. He skewered a hunk of meat onto a large stick he had found. “Peaceful is more like it. Nice and quiet. If there’s one thing I like about Tyntala, it’s the lack of noise,” he said as he held his skewer over the fire. “Anyone want some of this?”
“I’ll take some,” Lorenza said.
“None for me, thanks,” Rialta said, taking some bread, cheese, and apples from her bag.
“I’m good,” Remmy said.
Nivin simply shook his head.
They remained quiet as they ate. The wind continued to whistle and howl over the plains, and the sky grew darker as the last remnants of the sun disappeared behind the horizon. When Remmy finished eating, he opened his tome and began to flip through its pages.
“What are you doing?” Rialta asked, watching Remmy search through the tome. She felt an unease in her stomach as she eyed some of the sketches accompanying the entries in the tome. The immortalized sketches of ghouls, demons, and monsters seemed to stare directly at her by the dancing light of the fire.
“I thought I’d look up my grandmother’s entry on gremlins, given that John and I have never dealt with them before. Here it is,” Remmy said. He’d landed on a page covered with a long torrent of compact, neat handwriting around an illustration of a tall, impossibly-thin creature with bulging eyes and pointed ears. The gremlin, Rialta thought, looked markedly friendlier than some of the other creatures she’d glimpsed in Remmy’s tome. It stood on two legs and had an upright posture so familiar that if she were to squint, she could almost mistake it for a human.
“Seems they’re a lot smarter than sheepstalkers,” Remmy said, reading through the text. “Says here that they’re not the sort to resort to violence unless they’ve been attacked. She also noted that they’re highly social, but prone to forming rigid hierarchies within their groups. They’re especially proficient at harvesting natural materials, too. I guess that explains why the bunch we’re about to walk in on have set up a mining operation.”
Having finished reading, Remmy shut the tome once again. When he went to put it away, Rialta spotted a little golden tassel dangling out from somewhere in the middle of the tome. Remmy caught Rialta’s glance and hastened to shove the tome back into his pack.
“I feel like we should have a ghost story,” Remmy said quickly.
Rialta hesitated, but she decided not to ask Remmy about the tassel. “Are you volunteering?” she asked with a smile.
“I could be, unless one of you wants to tell one,” Remmy said.
“Floor’s yours, kid,” Lorenza said.
“All right,” Remmy said, smiling and sitting up straight. He cleared his throat and put on a menacing smile as he began his story:
“Years ago, there lived a little boy who dwelled right here in the Lonely Plains. One day, when he was—”
“If the story takes place here, how the hell would you know it?” John asked. “We just got here an hour ago.”
“Shut up, John! It’s a scary story! Suspension of disbelief, man!” Remmy said.
“Just seems dumb is all. Why didn’t you make it take place on Ro? You actually know things about Ro,” John said.
“Because we’re here! The story is always scarier if you make it take place where you’re telling it from!”
“Would you get on with it already?” Lorenza asked.
“Gladly!” Remmy snapped. “Anyway, like I said, there was a little boy, and one day he was going out for a long walk in the woods.”
“Why?” John asked.
“This isn’t an interactive story, John!” Remmy shouted.
“My bad. Continue.”
“So he was walking through the woods, when he suddenly came upon a very strange-looking rock beside a tree. The rock was a deep re
d color, and it had thin, blue lines running across its surface. He went to go pick it up—”
“Was it a heart?” Rialta asked. “It sounds like he was looking at a heart.”
“It’s a heart,” Lorenza said laughing. “I bet he was gonna pick it up, and then some kinda zombie or somethin’ comes after him lookin’ for it. Ain’t that right, Remmy?”
“…Perhaps.”
Nivin shook with the effort of containing his laughter.
“That story sucked,” John said.
“You suck!” Remmy said.
“I think I’ll be off to bed,” Rialta said, standing up and stretching.
“Same. Goodnight, boys,” Lorenza said, and she stood up to accompany Rialta over to the girls’ tent.
∗ ∗ ∗
Several hours later, Rialta crept out from the tent to discover that Lorenza was sitting beside the fire, idly poking at the logs with a large stick. She looked up as Rialta approached her.
“Having trouble sleeping, princess?”
“Don’t call me that,” Rialta said, though she returned Lorenza’s playful smirk with one of her own. “But yes, I am having trouble getting to sleep.”
“Yeah, me too,” Lorenza said.
Rialta walked over and sat beside Lorenza on the cold ground. Lorenza shot Rialta a furtive glance and shifted awkwardly to sit up a bit straighter.
Rialta sighed. “Are you still being weird about the whole royalty thing?”
“I’m sorry, Rialta, I can’t help it!” Lorenza blurted out, throwing her stick into the fire. “It’s just going to take me some time, okay? You know how things were on Raorik, even if we were from the opposite extremes of society. Folks like me were liable to be killed if we didn’t bow to someone like you the second they made their presence known. I lived there for thirty-two years. That kind of thing doesn’t fall out of your head overnight, ya know?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t really consider that. Of course you have some reservations,” Rialta said.
“No need for an apology,” Lorenza said.
“If it helps, I promise I won’t kill you if you fail to bow to me,” Rialta said with a grin.
“I’d like to see you try,” Lorenza said, chuckling.
Rialta laughed too, and then silence settled between them.
“Did you like your life back on Raorik?” Rialta asked. She did not know where the question had come from. It seemed to escape her without any conscious thought.
“You know what? For all its faults, I did like my life on Raorik. My parents were very wise, you see. Their philosophy of life kept me out of trouble.”
“What philosophy was that?”
“Don’t try to save the world,” Lorenza replied flatly.
“And what does that mean?” Rialta asked.
“It means keep your head down and your mouth shut,” Lorenza said. “Bards are a rare breed these days, and some of the last to be found were in my family. So we do what we can to protect ourselves. We don’t make too many friends, and if we do make any, we’ve got to be sure they’re the type to keep their mouths shut too. That’s how people like me stay out of trouble on Raorik. Your old man has amassed way too much power for anyone beneath him to do anything about it, and it’d be foolish to try to bring him down, or even to say a bad word against him in Raorik.
“But if there’s one nice thing to be said about him, the man was never cruel for the sake of cruelty. Cruel in resolving petty disagreements? Sure. Cruel in punishing half-hearted insults? Absolutely. But he ain’t never killed or imprisoned anyone just because he could. So like my mom and pop used to say, all you gotta do is lay low and bow to your betters. And generally, they would leave us alone.”
“But how can you say that?” Rialta asked. “You ended up here by the king’s order through no fault of your own.”
“True, but I managed to make it thirty-two years before that happened. And even then, it was just a stroke of bad luck that I happened to be picked. He needed a bard, so one of his men picked me up. I didn’t do nothin’ in particular to make it happen. It wasn’t a punishment.”
“And what about Nivin, and your other friend Sera?”
Lorenza shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t meet them until just before we were sent here. But both of them are a good deal younger than me, ain’t they? I have a feeling they were getting a bit too much attention around Raorik before they got involved in all this mess.”
“Sera was Nivin’s age?” Rialta asked.
“Close. A year older. He was just seventeen when we got here, and she was eighteen. She woulda’ turned twenty-three this past week, actually…” Lorenza stopped talking and looked up at the stars.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to open up any old wounds,” Rialta said.
“No worries, Rialta, just reminiscing is all,” Lorenza said, turning to face her. “You know, you kind of remind me of Sera. Aggression in spades, and terribly proficient with magic. What you do with fire, she did with ice. Just fierce, ya know? But like you, she was a sweetheart on the inside.”
Rialta smiled and stared into the fire.
Lorenza cleared her throat.
“What is it?” Rialta asked.
“There’s just one thing that’s been on my mind since I found out that you—well, that you are who you are,” Lorenza said.
“Tell me,” Rialta replied.
“It’s just, ever since we’ve been stranded here, me and Nivin—it’s always been nagging at the back of my mind…”
“What?”
“For better or worse, this place is our home—at least for now,” she added quickly.” “Do you think the king will ever send more of his forces here? Like what happened to Ro during the rebellion? Do you think this place could turn into a warzone? And what would become of our peace? I just… I can’t bear to think of what that would do to you kids,” she muttered. “You’ve all been through more than enough, the lot of you.”
Rialta smiled. “I think I can put your mind at ease on that score, Lorenza,” she said. “I might not have been part of the royal family for long, but I know a ‘desolate prospect’ when I see one.”
“Deso—What?” Lorenza replied.
“Desolate prospect,” Rialta replied. “It’s the term my father and his council use when referring to a dimension that is ultimately not worth pursuing. It’s a rather cruel and dismissive term if you ask me.”
Lorenza stared back at Rialta with a blank expression.
“Let me explain,” Rialta said. “Teleporting to new worlds is absurdly expensive, but the king has reason to explore as many new dimensions as possible, since any one of them could potentially be rich in resources. So he casts a very wide net, sending his subjects to dimension after dimension to see whether these new worlds are worth pursuing. After his initial waves of settlers, he’ll send a few scouts out to check on the new worlds and report back to him. And if any particular world in question is not worth pursuing any further he just… sort of gives up on it. He stops investing resources in exploring and developing it.”
“But how can you be so sure that’s what’s going on here on Tyntala?” Lorenza asked.
“My mother kept a number of journals about her short time as queen, so I’ve read all about how the king went about his conquests. First of all, he abandons the vast majority of dimensions, so there’s a reasonable possibility that Tyntala is a desolate prospect based on chance alone. But what makes me really certain is the fact that his forces are completely absent from this world. Like what you have here, he generally appoints a viceroy when the world is first colonized—a threatening figurehead with a few dozen troops to keep the masses wary of the king, even in foreign worlds. But when he finds a really profitable world, that’s when he sends thousands of troops into them to keep them under his stranglehold while they develop.”
“I think I get what you mean,” Lorenza said. “There ain’t any imperial soldiers in this place even after years and years.”
“Correct,”
Rialta said. “When we encountered those bandits back when we first met, that confirmed everything I needed to know. There’s no way a group of bandits like that could exist in a fully colonized world.”
“So the only logical conclusion—”
“Is that he has determined that Tyntala is not worth his time,” Rialta said with a nod.
“Well, his opinion of this place as a ‘desolate prospect’ might be insulting, but I’m glad he made that choice,” Lorenza said. “I can’t imagine how scary it would be to see thousands of the king’s soldiers suddenly come crashing down on Tyntala.”
“That’s why Ro is such an enigma,” Rialta said. “It was one of the most resource-rich colonies ever explored by the king, but when he sent in his troops to dominate it, he was overthrown, and the people of Ro established a militia of their own and became independent.”
“That really is an incredible feat,” Lorenza said.
Silence fell between them once more.
“Well, I’m glad for your company, Rialta. You were right, I do feel better about this place after talking to you.”
“Glad I could help,” Rialta said with a yawn.
“I think I’m finally starting to feel a bit tired as well,” Lorenza said. “Let’s try to get some decent sleep before tomorrow.”
Rialta nodded. She concentrated on the fire, willing it to extinguish before she followed Lorenza back into their tent.
Chapter 23
The Other Cleric
Rialta awoke with a start to a firm hand seizing her by the shoulder. She bolted upright and instinctively aimed her wand at her assailant. Nivin held up his hands in surrender, his eyes wide.
“Nivin?” Rialta asked, blinking in the light pouring through from the open flap of her tent. “You scared the hell out of me, I almost blasted your face clean off.” Nivin relaxed and let out a low sigh.
Rialta lowered her wand. “What’s wrong?” she added when Nivin’s look of unease did not subside. Nivin pointed to the flap of the tent, then raised a single finger to his tight-lipped mouth. Rialta nodded and remained silent. She cocked her head to the side, listening carefully. A man’s scream echoed through the previously silent autumn air. Rialta immediately rolled over out of her sleeping bag and scurried on her hands and knees out of the tent. Nivin followed close behind her.
A Quest for Chumps (Departed Dimensions Book 1) Page 17
