He kept going, of course, continuing for another two hours after escaping the storm before finally slowing the rune sled to a stop. Neither he nor Kerys got off immediately, instead just staying on the back of the stationary sled, hugging each other like two half-drowned rats.
“We’re okay,” said Ari. “We made it through the storm.”
He expected Kerys to need some reassuring, but when he pulled back from the hug to look at her, she had a broad grin on her face.
“I finally got one of them,” she said, gently fingering the edge of her short sword. “This thing is really sharp.”
Ari kissed her. Several times. Then he began wishing that the tent was set up, along with a fire to dry the clothes he wanted to strip off her, and that he had enough energy left to actually make something happen.
“Aristial…” said Kerys. “Your nose is bleeding.”
“Huh?” Ari tapped a finger to his nose, only then realizing that some of the wetness he’d felt on his face had had nothing to do with the rain. “Oh. It must be the humidity.”
The humidity, or the fact that he was running on threads of soul essence and had pushed himself to the limit while riding the rune sled. He shook his head, unwilling to let his thoughts travel too far in that horrible, inevitable direction.
CHAPTER 43
They were given a reprieve that lasted through the night and morning. Ari did eventually get the tent set up, with Eva assuming her incarnate form to help him along. He and Kerys collapsed on the sleeping pad as soon as it had been unrolled, and Eva diligently kept watch so they could sleep.
The sky was blessedly clear come morning, though the storm had done its damage. Ari had only had a vague idea of where they were in relation to Cliffhaven, and the desperate flight they’d taken through the night had completely scattered any vestiges of recognizable geography.
“What are we going to do?” asked Kerys. They were splitting up what remained of their food for breakfast, which was no more than a few scraps of dried meat and a handful of berries.
“We’re going to ask my magic ring for directions,” said Ari.
“It seems unwise to rely too much on that enchantment,” said Eva.
“It doesn’t really tell me much more than what I’d be able to figure out on my own,” said Ari. “Besides, I can only use it twice per day, maximum.”
It was a fact that he’d stopped to consider a few times, given how much of a limitation it was. If they eventually made it back to Ethereal Tower, and he had a sufficient amount of extra essence to pull it off, he was interested in experimenting with a version of the ring that could be used more often, perhaps even constantly.
Ari pushed his will into the ring while looking out over the nearby landscape and summoning the minimal amount of knowledge he had about the lay of the land. The Ring of Insight’s magic manifested in more of an instinctual, gut feeling this time, and he turned to face an angle toward the northwest.
“That’s where we’re headed,” he said. “Approximately.”
“How much faith do you have in this ring?” asked Kerys.
“Would you prefer to navigate in my place?” asked Ari.
Kerys gave a small shrug. “Maybe. You… don’t look that well today, Ari.”
Ari smiled at her, trying to seem nonchalant as he ignored the fact that he didn’t feel that well, either. Using his will to direct the rune sled had taken a toll on his body, and even he could notice how pale the skin on the back of his hands and arms looked.
“I feel fine,” he said. “We had a long night. I guess I just didn’t sleep well.”
Kerys nodded, but Eva looked far more skeptical. As they finished packing up their camp, she made her way over to him and threaded her fingers through his.
“Aristial,” she said, in a soft voice. “You are not well, are you?”
Ari scowled and rolled his eyes. “Kerys is supposed to be the worrier, not you.”
Eva led him a short distance away from the camp, just outside of Kerys’ effective earshot.
“This has to do with your soul essence, doesn’t it?” she asked.
Ari hated her a little for being so perceptive.
“It’s fine,” said Ari. “The hit I took from the purple mesmer back on Deepwater Spire left me… slightly weakened.”
Eva saw right through his dismissal. Her stoic expression wavered as she held his gaze, and she glanced downward as she whispered her next words.
“Are you dying, milord?”
If she’d pressed her point without being so direct, Ari would have lied to her face without hesitation. Unfortunately, she’d asked the one question that he couldn’t answer like that. He couldn’t deny it, not convincingly, and not without lying to himself in a way that made a lump form in his throat. He said nothing, and the change in Eva’s expression told him that she understood that to be an answer in itself.
“Aristial!” she said. “We have to do something about this! If it’s your soul essence, perhaps there’s a way—”
“Shhh!” Ari glared at her and pulled a hand free to bring a finger to his lips. “Look, you can’t tell Kerys about this. It would be just… too much for her to know about. I still have time left, months, at least.”
“How do you know that?” asked Eva.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” snapped Ari.
“I think you should.”
“Do you remember back when I tried to bring up what I’d seen of Lord Mythril’s memories, and you stopped me from telling you?” asked Ari. “This is the same for me. Eva… I just don’t want to talk about this. I won’t, not even if you pester me.”
Eva looked heartbroken, and Ari found himself wishing he’d just lied to her in the first place for simplicity’s sake. She brought a hand to his cheek, blinking a couple of times. There was a wet gleam to the look she gave him, and Ari set his hand on top of hers.
“I won’t watch you die, Aristial Stoneblood,” she whispered. “I will abide by your request. I will not tell Kerys. But I am not going to let whatever’s happened to your soul essence, to your soul, be the doom of you.”
She spoke with confidence despite the slight tremble that ran through her fingers. Kerys had noticed that the two of them had split off and was watching them with a frown and her hands on her hips.
“Is this a conversation I should be a part of?” called Kerys.
Ari fumbled for a quick excuse. “I was, uh, explaining to Eva what happened that first night in the tent while we were on the island. Between the three of us…”
Kerys turned bright red. Eva raised an eyebrow, clearly not fully aware of what had happened that night.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Eva in a whispered question.
“Ask Kerys,” said Ari.
They set off as soon as the supplies were secure within Ari’s pack. He pushed the rune sled along at a fair pace, though not nearly as fast as they’d traveled through the storm. He felt slightly paranoid about how much essence he’d stored within the rune sled’s wards, and what would happen when it ran out. If the wards all failed simultaneously, they’d probably be fine, but if one or two ran dry on essence before the others, the crash could very well end with a serious injury.
As it turned out, it was an empty worry. Ari almost couldn’t believe it when they came across what was clearly a heavily weathered dirt road early that afternoon. He brought the rune sled to a stop next to it and climbed off, shaking his head as he made out the clear impression of footprints in a section of mud.
“This has to lead to Cliffhaven,” said Kerys. “It’s heading the same way that we are.”
“We couldn’t have asked for a clearer sign,” said Ari. “We’re almost there.”
He let a small smile play across his face as he imagined what it would be like to finally reach the city that they’d been hearing rumors of for so long. They still had a fair amount of jewels and gold coins in the bottom of Ari’s pack, though much of their treasure had been in Kerys and
Eva’s bags, which had been lost to the storm. At the very least, they’d have enough to get settled for a few days.
“Once we reach the city, we’ll need to proceed with the instructions the Vereshi of the Ravarians gave us,” said Eva. “I doubt the flock takes kindly on those who abandon their duty.”
“It might also lead us to new opportunities,” said Kerys. “We’re supposed to meet up with Rin and Leyehl and then try to negotiate with the leader of the city, after all.”
“Let’s hope they both survived the storm,” said Ari.
He didn’t let his doubt show on his face as he gestured for Kerys and Eva to climb back onto the rune sled. It was a conflicted sort of doubt, however. As much as he’d come to consider Rin as a friend and the respect he had for Leyehl, if neither of them met up with Ari and the others in Cliffhaven, they would have no choice but to abandon their task.
Ari brought the rune sled back a ways, following parallel with the road to the northwest at a distance that would make them hard to spot by any other travelers. If enchantments and magic were as rare among the Hume of Cliffhaven as they were with the Ravarians, then he couldn’t predict how a passerby might react to such an unusual sight.
They didn’t spot any other travelers, but they did pass a number of farms, if they could be called that. They were simple, different from how farms had been depicted in the artwork he’d seen back in Golias Hollow.
Most of the farms appeared to be simple, unmanned operations. Fruits and vegetables of all types grew within large, carefully fenced-in plots of fertile soil. There was usually a small storage shed next to each, too small to serve as a store for the crops or accommodate a person.
“It’s because of the Weatherblight,” said Kerys, from behind him on the sled. “They can’t risk staying at their farms permanently. They must make trips out from Cliffhaven during harvest and leave them unattended the rest of the time.”
“They must lose a significant portion to weeds and pests, then,” said Ari. “Seems kind of wasteful.”
Even as he spoke the words, he had to recognize that it was probably the only way to farm the land effectively. It would be near impossible to construct a farm that could grow crops in the sunlight and also protect people from the effects of the Weatherblight.
They continued along the road, spotting several more farms along with the remains of unfortunate caravans. Ari slowed the rune sled as they crested the top of a hill and finally saw their destination in the distance.
Cliffhaven was the perfect name for the city that lay before them. It lay on top of a several hundred-foot-high plateau, cut off from the ground by steep, jagged cliffs. A single, winding pathway had been cut into the cliff on the southern side, allowing a route of access to the main gates.
The walls surrounding the city were at least half as high as the cliffs themselves, and Ari suspected that they not only served to dissuade the Weatherblight outside the city but also likely affected the nearby air currents in a manner that calmed the climate.
Only a few of the buildings within the city were high enough to have their tops visible above the massive stone walls, but trails of smoke billowed upward in places, and Ari could see a few soldiers patrolling that wall’s parapet, though they looked like ants from such a great distance.
“I would not recommend bringing the rune sled much closer to this,” said Eva through the bond.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” said Ari.
He turned the rune sled around, gliding back down the hill and then steering into one of the thicker patches of nearby trees. Ari had the luck to find a hollow log of a perfect size to hide the sled within, and he pulled some bushes into place on either end to obscure it completely.
It would be near impossible for anyone to stumble across by chance, and he spent a couple of minutes memorizing the nearby landscape and marking a few nearby trees with his initials to make it easy for him to find when he decided to return to it.
CHAPTER 44
“Any thoughts on how we make our approach?” asked Ari. He’d directed the question more toward Eva, who was still in her sword form, but Kerys was the one who answered.
“There’s a small village at the bottom of the cliffs in front of the city, it looks like,” said Kerys. “Let’s head there first.”
Ari nodded. “Makes sense. Eva, do you want to come with us for this? In bodily form, I mean?”
“Best if I stay like this,” said Eva. “I will be able to give you advice more readily and can draw upon the element of surprise in case of danger.”
There was also the fact that, with her silver hair and skimpy Saidican clothing, she probably stood out the most of the three of them, but Ari didn’t point that out. He headed forward, leaving the trees and walking across grass next to Kerys.
The combination of the beautiful day, soft wind, and breathtaking city ahead of them almost the moment feel like something out of the fine paintings done by a few of the Mistresses down in Golias Hollow. Ari briefly considered holding Kerys’ hand as they walked, but he began to make out more details of the approaching village and decided his fingers might be better served wrapped around a sword.
Out of around a dozen buildings scattered across the area at the bottom of the cliffs, only a single one looked to be in the appropriate shape for habitation. The rest had collapsed roofs, or missing ones, or were little more than glorified scrap wood scattered across a stone foundation.
There was a large bonfire on the edge of the destroyed village with a group of five or six people sitting around it. Outside of his companions and Jarvis, Ari almost couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a normal human of regular height without it being a ghostly mesmer or sporting fantastic wings. He approached slowly, smiling and holding a hand up as the group turned to consider him.
“Greetings,” said Ari. “I’m new to this area. Do you think you could—”
“Piss off,” said a tall, round-faced man with a long blond braid. “We ain’t out here to take pity on outsiders and exiles.”
He spoke in a quick, clipped accent that almost seemed to force words together at times. Ari could make out what he was saying, but the cadence of it almost felt like another language entirely.
The man with the blond braid wore black leather pants with holes ripped in them, along with a heavily stained grey cotton shirt. The rest of his group weren’t much better outfitted or equipped, and Ari noted that the only weapons he could see among them were small daggers and short swords.
“We’re not looking for pity,” said Ari. “I just want to ask a few questions.”
He reached into his pack, pulling out a sarkin flower smoke that he’d been storing for what felt like an eternity. It was dry, which was a small blessing given how much ocean and rain he’d encountered recently. He wiggled it toward the group and raised an eyebrow before swiping it through the fire to spark the end.
“Trium blessed, you got wax in your fricking ears or something?” asked the woman sitting near the blond man. “We’re storm scouts, and we’re about to be heading out to work. Move on.”
“Tell me how to get into the city,” said Ari, puffing the smoke and holding it up in offering to whoever answered the question.
A lanky young man to his left took him up on it, taking it with two fingers with a nod.
“Pay your citizenship tax,” he said. “That’s all you got to do.”
“It’s that simple?” asked Kerys.
A couple of the group laughed.
“If you can afford it, it is,” said the lanky youth.
“Don’t expect to be asking us for getting in on our contract, either,” snapped the woman. “We’ve got enough to split between already, and neither of you look like you’d last five minutes on a storm run.”
Ari rolled his eyes. “Of course. Thanks for the help.”
He nodded to the lanky lad who’d been the only helpful one out of the group and then turned and led Kerys away from the fire. His instincts made him half expe
ct to be attacked by one or all of them from behind as soon as his attention was elsewhere, but all of them stayed where they were.
He headed into the only actively maintained building amidst the wreckage of the village, pausing to read the sign out front before heading in through the door. It was written in all caps, and each of the letters had odd little accents that made the script look unlike anything he’d seen before.
CYTHIA’S STORM GOODS
Ari knocked on the door before pushing it open. The interior was musky and dark, lit only by a single candle perched upon the counter in the back of the store. An elderly woman was sitting in a chair behind it and quietly humming to herself.
“Hello,” said Kerys, who stepped forward first. “We’re travelers. We were hoping we could ask you a couple of questions?”
The old woman frowned and jammed a finger into her ear. “What?”
“We’re travelers,” said Kerys, in a louder voice.
“Hagglers?” shouted the woman. “I don’t haggle. All prices in copper and silver tips, only.”
“We… are… travelers,” said Ari, standing right next to the counter and all but shouting into her ear.
“Oh, travelers,” said the woman. “Why didn’t you say so? You looking to get into the city, I suppose. We don’t get many fresh outsiders coming this way no more. You from the tribes out west? Or the fishing village?”
Ari glanced over at Kerys. He felt like he had more questions for the woman already than she’d be able to easily answer, or at least hear.
“We’re from Golias Hollow,” said Kerys. “Down south, across the desert.”
“Hmmm…” said the woman. “I’m sorry, I must have heard you wrong. I thought you said you came from across the desert.”
“Why couldn’t we have encountered a blind shopkeeper instead of a deaf one?” muttered Ari.
“Because a blind shopkeeper wouldn’t be able to…” Kerys let out a huff. “You know what, I’m going to let you think for yourself why that makes no sense.”
Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Page 27
